Leading the

Millennial
Workforce
A study linking empowering leadership and millennial
needs

MASTER THESIS
THESIS WITHIN: Business Administration
NUMBER OF CREDITS: 30
PROGRAMME OF STUDY: Global Management
AUTHOR: Christian Campello Engren, Roxána Raj
JÖNKÖPING May 2022
Acknowledgement
Firstly, we would like to thank our interviewees who dedicated their time to helping us by
recounting about their experiences and insights. Your contribution cannot be understated as our
thesis would not have been possible without you. We hope we were able to help you reflect on
what you feel comfortable with and therefore, be happier with your jobs.

Secondly, we are grateful to our peers who gave us valuable feedback all throughout the course.
Our vivid discussions during the monthly seminars helped us immensely with our work and we
believe that this added further structure and depth to our paper. Your recommendations opened
doors which we might not have seen without you.

Thirdly, we want to give special thanks to our supervisor, Daniel Pittino. You were always
available to answer our questions throughout the process and your comments, ideas and
feedback helped our work tremendously. We thank you for your expert insights which helped
shape and enrich our thesis.

Last but not least, we would like to express our gratitude towards our families and friends. You
offered support and encouragement when we most needed it and helped us get through this
semester.

Thank you,
Roxána & Christian

May 23, 2022

i
Master Thesis in Business Administration
Title: Leading the millennial workforce – A study linking empowering leadership and
millennial needs
Authors: Christian Campello Engren and Roxána Raj
Tutor: Daniel Pittino
Date: 2022-05-23

Key terms: millennials, empowering leadership, motivation, leadership, generational

differences

Abstract

Background: Leadership practices in general are of great interest and today’s workforce
mainly consist of people from the millennial generation. As this phenomenon is becoming
apparent, management must adapt to the changing needs of employees. Long gone are the times
when people stayed at the company for their whole careers since it is not only easier to relocate
but they act on their dissatisfaction more frequently. Therefore, it is imperative that leadership
evolves to match the new demands set out by millennials to make them less inclined to depart.

Purpose: We set out to explore how leadership can be used to satisfy the needs of millennial
employees. Empowering leadership is the style that was found to fit the best so we set out to
explore millennials through the lens of empowering leadership. This in turn allowed us to also
enrich the leadership theory with added insights based on employee needs.

Method: We conducted a qualitative study with thirteen semi-structured interviews which

resulted in rich data. Gaining insights from our interviewees, we were able to critically assess
the validity of empowering leadership. We analyzed our data with thematic analysis to
categorize it in different themes and further comprehend the findings.

Conclusion: The results show that most empowering leadership practices fit the needs of
millennial employees. Based on the findings, we further identified two distinct practices that
are to be added to leadership literature and were able to understand what the millennials require
in the workplace.

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Table of Contents

Introduction .......................................................................... 1
1.1 Background ............................................................................................. 1
1.2 Problematization ...................................................................................... 2
1.3 Purpose ................................................................................................... 4
Literature Review .................................................................. 7
2.1 Millennials .............................................................................................. 7
2.1.1 Entitlement .............................................................................................. 7
2.1.2 Lack of loyalty ......................................................................................... 9
2.1.3 Autonomy, flexibility................................................................................ 9
2.1.4 Work-life balance ................................................................................... 10
2.1.5 Versatile, engaging assignments ............................................................... 11
2.1.6 Constant feedback .................................................................................. 12
2.1.7 Human connections at work ..................................................................... 13
2.2 Empowering leadership ........................................................................... 14
2.2.1 Overview ............................................................................................... 14
2.2.2 Empowering leadership practices ............................................................. 15
Methodology ........................................................................ 19
3.1 Research philosophy ............................................................................... 19
3.2 Research approach .................................................................................. 20
3.3 Research Design ..................................................................................... 21
3.3.1 Sampling ............................................................................................... 22
3.3.2 Data generation ...................................................................................... 22
3.3.3 Data analysis .......................................................................................... 24
3.3.4 Data analysis process .............................................................................. 26
3.4 Research quality ..................................................................................... 28
3.4.1 Credibility ............................................................................................. 29
3.4.2 Transferability........................................................................................ 29
3.4.3 Dependability......................................................................................... 29
3.4.4 Confirmability........................................................................................ 30
3.5 Ethical considerations ............................................................................. 30
Empirical findings and analysis ............................................ 32
4.1 Autonomy ............................................................................................. 32
4.1.1 Flexible working hours ........................................................................... 33
4.1.2 Responsibility over workday.................................................................... 33
4.1.3 Hybrid working conditions ...................................................................... 34
4.1.4 Task-related autonomy ............................................................................ 35
4.1.5 Being trusted .......................................................................................... 37
4.2 Development.......................................................................................... 38
4.2.1 Skill development ................................................................................... 38
4.2.2 Career development ................................................................................ 39
4.3 Intellectual stimulation ............................................................................ 40
4.3.1 Challenging work ................................................................................... 41

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4.3.2 Varied work ........................................................................................... 42
4.4 Feedback ............................................................................................... 43
4.4.1 Continuous feedback............................................................................... 43
4.4.2 Developmental purposes ......................................................................... 44
4.5 Work-life balance ................................................................................... 45
4.5.1 Healthy balance ...................................................................................... 46
4.5.2 Mentally clocking out ............................................................................. 47
4.5.3 Pressure and stress .................................................................................. 47
4.6 Being content with work ......................................................................... 48
4.6.1 Social aspect .......................................................................................... 49
4.6.2 Self-efficacy .......................................................................................... 49
4.6.3 Meaningful job ....................................................................................... 50
4.6.4 Feeling valued ........................................................................................ 51
4.7 Manager ................................................................................................ 52
4.7.1 Coaching ............................................................................................... 52
4.7.2 Knowledgeable ...................................................................................... 53
4.7.3 Relationship ........................................................................................... 54
4.7.4 Supportive and caring ............................................................................. 55
4.7.5 Importance............................................................................................. 56
4.8 Corporate environment............................................................................ 58
4.8.1 Communication ...................................................................................... 58
4.8.2 Culture .................................................................................................. 59
4.8.3 Money ................................................................................................... 60
Discussion............................................................................ 61
5.1 Discussion of study................................................................................. 61
5.2 Summary of discussion ........................................................................... 65
Conclusions ......................................................................... 67
6.1 Theoretical implications .......................................................................... 67
6.2 Practical implications .............................................................................. 67
6.3 Limitations ............................................................................................ 68
6.4 Future research ....................................................................................... 69
Reference list ....................................................................... 70
Appendices .......................................................................... 78
Appendix 1 ......................................................................................................... 78
Appendix 2 ......................................................................................................... 80
Appendix 3 ......................................................................................................... 81

iv
 Introduction
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the topic of the study. Firstly, we
cover the background of millennials and introduce empowering leadership. We then
discuss problematization which helped us identify an under researched part of literature
and lead us to the purpose and research question.
______________________________________________________________________

1.1 Background

This paper deals with issues regarding millennials/Gen Y (people born between 1981 and
1999) in the workplace. As the millennial workforce is becoming the biggest cohort of
workers in the workspace (Anderson et al., 2017; Deloitte, 2016), it becomes apparent
that there is an increasing need for changes in the leadership style and corporate culture
to satisfy the largest group of employees. What may have worked in the past is not
working anymore with this new generation that has put more emphasis on work-life
balance than solely securing stable employment (Twenge, 2010; Valenti, 2019).

We want to explore how generational characteristics may affect how employees can be
motivated and satisfied at their job. One of the main characteristics of the younger
workforce is their more apparent need for autonomy and versatility in their jobs (Valenti,
2019) thus, empowering leadership may be one of the best styles for motivating and
leading this generation, as it is an approach that allows for more individual and rewarding
work. The literature on empowering leadership, and leadership in general, is extensive as
it is a field that has gained a lot of traction with the changes, in not only employee
expectations but the business environment as well. Research on generations and
specifically the differences between millennials and previous generations is also
voluminous and we believe that combining the two topics is an important approach that
has the potential to enhance work relations a great deal.

This change in behavior, values, goals and attitudes can be attributed to the general
phenomenon that is differences between generations which has always been the case for
every generational shift. Some of the characteristics that create the need to implement

1
different ways of motivating this generation include the much more palpable need for
autonomy (Cennamo & Gardner, 2008), flexibility and freedom in their work (Cahill &
Sedrak, 2012) and ever-changing tasks (Kultalahti & Viitala, 2015). These expectations
call for a change in how management is carried out in an organization compared to how
the previous generation required to be led.

There is some literature that argue that we ought to consider differences in age rather than
generations as it is more representative of why different leadership styles might be
beneficial (Rudolph et al., 2018). The reasoning behind this approach is that people act
differently and have diverse needs based on what point in their life they are regardless of
what generation they belong to. According to Rudolph et al. (2018), research within
leadership and generational studies has fallen behind and suggests that instead lifespan
development perspective would be more suitable as it does not deal with the idea that
people from the same cohort would have the same experiences just because they are born
in the same timeframe. It deals more with the issues of people born in between generations
depending on how one looks at what years consist one generation over the other, since a
few years apart would not mean a total distinct set of values. Even though this is an
interesting approach, it is far less prevalent in research and is not beneficial to our study.
Since generational studies have been researched to a far greater extent it becomes easier
to explore the topic from this angle. Therefore, in this paper we decided to focus on
generational differences being the most prominent factors as to why different attitudes
are needed to motivate employees from their own perspective.

1.2 Problematization

Gen Y is defined a bit differently across the literature, but the starting and end years are
always somewhere around 1980 and 2000 respectively (Rudolph et al., 2018). This
indicates that the majority of this generation is of working age. Because of the
disagreement of what years really make up Gen Y, different data can be found on exactly
how much of the current workforce belongs to this generation. However, there is a general
consensus that millennials are the largest cohort. According to Pew Research Center, 35%
of the American workforce belonged to this generation in 2018 (Fry, 2018) and most non-

2
official websites state the same. Therefore, it is clear that companies have to be aware of
how millennials need to be treated.

The millennials who have become the largest segment of the workforce seem to be less
loyal compared to the generations that came before them (Anderson et al., 2017). This
means that businesses are facing the risk of their employees being more willing to change
workplaces than they were previously (Becton et al., 2014), as millennials are less afraid
of change and seem to be more ready to take risks which includes changing jobs more
willingly. This creates higher costs for companies as they are forced to spend a lot on
hiring, training and integrating employees into the organization. The overall millennial
turnover costs were estimated to be around $30.5 billion in the US annually in a report by
Gallop Inc. (Adkins, 2016).

Therefore, employers need to work more diligently on retaining their employees. This
can be done by satisfying their needs which are arguably different from those of the earlier
generations. As Gen Y craves versatility and to have a say in what they do (Valenti, 2019),
empowering them seems to be the best course of action. Empowering leadership focuses
on involving employees in decision making and high levels of delegation (Sharma &
Kirkman, 2015). Thus, this style of leadership has the potential to satisfy the needs of
millennials.

We have found that the literature talks about how and why millennials are different from
previous generations and there is some research about what leadership might do
differently to fit the needs of this group of the workforce (Anderson et al., 2017; Balda &
Mora, 2011). There is also literature on evidence that Gen Y is the most likely to be
disloyal and change jobs more frequently (Anderson et al., 2017) which negatively
impacts workspaces. Research that has been carried out in this field has been done in a
quantitative manner which means that our qualitative study stands out and adds more
depth to this under researched area.

Extensive research has been done on the generational differences focusing on comparing
different generations to each other. For this reason, we consider the existence of
differences a fact and the basis of our study thus we can concentrate on Gen Y only. Some

3
researchers disagree with clustering people and generalizing based on when they were
born (Rudolph et al., 2018). We agree that ideally, multiple factors should be examined
and taken into account however, delimitations of our thesis need to be identified. In order
to limit the scope of our thesis to make it feasible, we will not be examining the effects
of factors such as culture, gender, industry or experience. Instead, we will solely be
focusing on the generational aspect as a differentiator, so our results are not influenced
by any other external factors. We are only interested in white-collar workers regardless
of the aforementioned aspects as we want to explore the corporate setting. Blue-collar
workers were chosen to be excluded from the study to ensure a more homogeneous
sample since they would most likely give different answers compared to people working
in an office environment.

1.3 Purpose

Based on the existing body of literature, the reason behind leaders’ and companies’
struggle is evident. The issue is the high turnover rates which lead to the loss of highly
qualified workforce. The reason behind this phenomenon can be traced back to the
difficulty of understanding how generational differences create a need for change in
leadership style. Studies exploring generational characteristics and leadership styles aim
to bridge the gap between how Gen Y requires to be led and how managers from previous
generations look at their own roles as leaders.

Creating the right circumstances seems to be the most important challenge and task for
management in this day and age. Accommodating the needs of this generation requires a
different mindset compared to what was considered ideal for leaders in the past. Having
done an extensive literature review on Gen Y and their needs, we got a comprehensive
overview of what working millennials require for them to be satisfied with their
employment. We then looked over the existing leadership theories and found one that we
believe to include the most fitting behaviors for this generation. Thus, empowering
leadership can be a good way to create a fitting environment for millennials to feel
comfortable and motivated at the workplace. Making work interesting and challenging,
to a healthy extent where it is manageable and not too stressful (Hershatter & Epstein,

4
2010), has the potential to improve millennials’ perception of their employment. What
we aim to learn is the employees’ perspective and how managers/leaders can learn from
their experiences. We strive to open the minds of the leaders to the defining characteristics
of millennials so that they can learn to accommodate their needs. We want to make sure
that leaders have the right set of tools to make employees feel valued as in the service-
and knowledge-intensive world we live in, employees are one of the most important assets
a company can have.

The ultimate purpose of our research is to explore how millennials’ needs could be
matched with characteristics of empowering leadership to help improve the perceived
working conditions for Gen Y employees. We want to look into the perspective of
millennials to see how the right leadership style can improve job satisfaction for them.
With our study, we will attempt to find evidence that millennial employees are more likely
to be content if they feel like their needs are met. To be able to carry out the research and
to have the potential to positively impact the current workforce, we propose the following
research question to help guide our study:

RQ: How does empowering leadership improve job satisfaction of millennials?

Our thesis will hopefully be beneficial to both scholars and practitioners. By linking
empowerment to the way millennials ought to be treated, we hope to create meaningful
research in this field by contributing to the existing body of knowledge in both leadership
and generational studies. The aim will thus be to examine the perspectives of workers as
to why there is this growing concern of millennials leaving companies prematurely and
not reaching their full potential at said company. By ingraining the mindset that
empowering Gen Y is a way to keep them at work, it will hopefully have a ripple effect
throughout the field of study. We aim to add nuance to the field of leadership in regards
to empowering specifically the millennial cohort. For leaders, we intend to provide an
insight as to how their employees need to be managed and hopefully, how this
empowering leadership style will be beneficial for them. Lastly, we strive to show the
employees themselves that their ideas and thoughts will be heard and are of concern to
leaders and that they will see the benefits of being empowered at work. We hope that our

5
study will have the potential to create better circumstances and therefore have positive
impact on work relations in the twenty-first century.

6
 Literature Review
_____________________________________________________________________________________
This literature review entails two distinct topics namely, millennials and empowering
leadership. Firstly, we will examine the literature surrounding generational studies and
the different nuances when it comes to Gen Y, then we review the existing literature within
empowering leadership.
______________________________________________________________________

2.1 Millennials

Research within generations, studies different cohorts of people born within the same
timeframe. Usually these timeframes (generations) last around 15-20 years. Examples of
the different classifications of millennials include 1982-1999 (Twenge et al., 2010); 1978-
1995 (Kultalahti & Viitala, 2015); 1982-2004 (Valenti, 2019). Therefore, it is imperative
for us to define what we will consider the generation called millennials/Gen Y. In this
paper, we define the generation of our focus as people born between 1981-1999 because
most of the classifications fall into this general timeframe (Rudolph et al., 2018). Below
we discuss some characteristics that are commonly associated with millennials and that
we perceive to be relevant for our current study. In 2.1.1 and 2.1.2, we introduce the
negative light in which Gen Y is oftentimes presented in literature to allow for a more
authentic study. We then proceed with explaining their needs within the workplace to
emphasize what they require from leadership.

2.1.1 Entitlement

A common negatively discussed aspect about millennials is that they are lazy or unwilling
to work hard (Rudolph et al., 2018). This argued difference is one of the fundamentally
biggest challenges for leaders when dealing with the newer generation. Millennials in
general are more interested in having their own goals and values fulfilled as opposed to
the companies’. The view of them being lazy has been used in different studies as Twenge
and Kasser (2013) mention that the demand of a reward is more prevalent than the desire

7
to work for it. The millennial workforce has also been seen to put more emphasis on other
things than work and as such, is perceived to have a weaker work ethic than their older
counterparts (Twenge, 2010). In a study done by Lyons (2004) where he gathered 1196
Canadian knowledge workers and surveyed them about general and work values, no
support that the millennials have worse work ethics was found. However, this is a
contradictory point to other studies where they state that this is the generation that cares
the least about work and cares more about themselves, hence the name GenMe (Rudolph
et al., 2018). Entitlement is often something that is discussed in literature and the sense
that millennials feel like they deserve to have things just because they want it and do not
emphasize the need to work hard for them (Twenge & Kasser, 2013).

Another negative connotation with the millennial generation is that they are self-involved
and not caring towards others. This has been highlighted by the book the Narcissism
epidemic: Living in the age of Entitlement (Twenge & Campbell, 2009), where the authors
argue that the millennials are people of growing narcissism and that they themselves agree
with this statement. The book states that in 2006, one in every four college students would
be classified as a narcissist, from data collected from 37000 students. There is research
that argues that this might be because millennials are more individualistic than previous
generations (Twenge, 2010). This could be seen as two sides of the same coin, it is also
said that millennials are less altruistic at work and more interested in extrinsic values such
as success and how they look (Twenge et al., 2012). Concerns for others in the workspace
have decreased as the sense of community and affiliation to work have declined (Twenge
et al., 2012).

This is in direct contrast with the notion that this generation is much more caring about
the world and inclusive and environmentally interested (Greenberg & Weber, 2008). This
is supposedly the generation that cares about including people from all over the world,
they are the most socially and ethnically diverse generation in the US (Greenberg &
Weber, 2008). The idea of helping others and being part of the community has had many
advocates in research where they state that jobs are designed specifically with the intent
to attract young workers by letting them help others (Lancaster & Stillman, 2010). This
is not the whole academia's perception as Twenge (2010) argues that there are no
generational differences when it comes to being part of volunteer programs and helping

8
others and that this is indeed contrary to what the popular opinion is. Seeing both sides
on this matter, it is clear that there is no consensus that research agrees on; in which way
generations are similar or in which way they differ.

2.1.2 Lack of loyalty

Gen Y differs in the way they see loyalty to a firm. Previously, one would be more loyal
regardless of personal goals being met whereas this new generation puts more importance
on having their needs satisfied. According to a study conducted by Solnet et al. (2012),
Gen Y is more likely to be less engaged at work and less committed. This then translates
to less loyalty and more likeliness to change work.

Another key difference is the work centrality and the work ethics (Twenge & Campbell,
2012). Twenge et al. (2010) found that millennials are less likely to work overtime and
less likely to view work as the most important aspect of their life and this reduction in
affiliation to work is an explanatory factor to being disloyal. The globalized world is a
big reason for this change, as workers are not as bound to one location and can now find
work through various new means brought by technology. Having more adaptive work in
a more globalized context has opened the doors for a plethora of opportunities that were
not available before (Twenge et al., 2010).

2.1.3 Autonomy, flexibility

A characteristic that today’s management must adapt to is millennials’ higher need for
flexibility as is recognized by multiple researchers (Anderson et al., 2017; Cahill &
Sedrak, 2012; Kultalahti & Viitala, 2015; Twenge, 2010). Requiring flexibility has many
connotations in the employment context. It means, among others, that this generation
wants to have some control over their working hours as maintaining a healthy work-life
balance is important to them (Ng et al., 2010). Having clear-cut 9-to-5 workdays five
times a week is becoming less acceptable with Gen Y taking up most of the workforce
(Bolino et al., 2021). According to Twenge & Campbell (2012), organizations offering
opportunities for flexible work schedules seem to be more attractive for millennials.

9
Implementing flextime is not a new phenomenon so research has been carried out on the
effects it might have. Productivity has been shown to increase due to flexible work
schedules, partly because they can momentarily reduce stress (Baltes et al., 1999).

Flexibility can also mean wanting to have autonomy over the way they do their jobs
(Kong et al., 2016). The need for autonomy and freedom has been said to be more
important for Gen Y than previous generations (Cennamo & Gardner, 2008). Millennials
want to be independent in their work and have the flexibility to do their jobs as they see
fit (Ulrych, 2021) and they feel most comfortable at work when they are given the
freedom to learn from their mistakes (Kultalahti & Viitala, 2015). According to a survey
carried out by Deloitte (2016), Gen Y employees value the feeling of having freedom to
work on their tasks as they want to, instead of being told exactly how to carry out
assignments. Having control over their work creates a feeling of being trusted and
respected (Holt, 2018), which plays a huge role in motivation and thus can impact
productivity and job satisfaction.

Companies can leverage the already existing knowledge on the benefits of flexibility to
attract Gen Y workers who are similar in this aspect to their predecessors. The difference
is that they want more of this flexibility than the employees before them so much so that
some research has shown that some of them value it more than salary and would be ready
to make a compromise in favor of flexibility (Valenti, 2019).

2.1.4 Work-life balance

Something that has been thrown around as a given for this generation is the importance
of a healthy work-life balance and how they strive to find this above all. The changes in
attitudes see millennials wanting more time for leisure and having lives outside of work
(Twenge, 2010; Valenti, 2019). The need for work-life balance is important when it
comes to job choices and it may mean that they want more flexible work hours so that
they can have time for their leisure activities as well (Ng et al., 2010). Ng et al. (2010)
highlight the importance of bringing the fun aspect to the workspace with this generation
as this would provide the fluidity they crave from their ideal employer. Having more

10
amenities and break rooms or fun activities around work can be a healthy distraction (Ng
et al., 2010).

The workplace has changed and is adapting to the millennial workforce as they are more
demanding when it comes to flexibility within the work schedule. Peeples (2009) argues
that having ten hour shifts four days a week instead of five days working regular hours is
more effective and might even reduce the cost for the company and bring more structure.
Being able to work fewer days but for longer hours is positive for the work-life balance
that has become more of a necessity (Bolino et al., 2021). Employees are also more likely
to seek out this work-life balance when looking for work and employers can stand out if
they offer this (Twenge & Campbell, 2012).

2.1.5 Versatile, engaging assignments

Something that leaders cannot ignore is millennials’ need for versatile jobs. Research
carried out among the members of this generation has shown that they prefer working
conditions where they get to do different assignments (Kultalahti & Viitala, 2015). Their
jobs getting repetitive is said to be one of the main reasons for being demotivated and
altogether unhappy with work. Millennials are not as afraid of change as the older
generations which is well demonstrated by them seeking versatile job opportunities. They
want to be challenged constantly because solely working for the money is not motivating
enough for them (Altizer, 2010; Valenti, 2019).

Stagnation has been perceived to be a reason for millennials to feel discontent at work. A
changing, challenging and engaging work environment where they get to use their
creativity is considered ideal (Deloitte, 2016; Holt, 2018). In a study carried out by
Kultalahti and Viitala (2015), Gen Y considers continuous work where the tasks do not
change much to be a major demotivating factor. Not being able to work on varying tasks
that challenge the employee to the right degree makes work boring. This outlook might
explain why millennials are fairly likely to be disloyal to their employers if something
that promises to be more exciting shows up.

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The other side of the coin regarding challenging work is stress avoidance. Millennials are
typically up for challenges as long as they think they are able to handle them (Kultalahti
& Viitala, 2015). They want to be confident in knowing that they can deal with the task
they have to complete which is in line with research on psychological empowerment as a
concept that helps increase motivation (Spreitzer, 1995). Part of this construct is
competence meaning that the individual feels confident in their abilities to carry out
certain tasks (Kong et al., 2016). So the concept itself is not new but a parallel can be
drawn between self-efficacy being motivating and millennials wanting to do challenging
work while not being overstressed.

2.1.6 Constant feedback

As mentioned earlier, millennials want to be given the freedom to learn from their
mistakes (Kultalahti & Viitala, 2015). They want to be able to develop their skills and
become better at their jobs by being able to learn through failure (Holt, 2018) without
having to worry about negative consequences of errors. However, this does not mean that
they are reckless and want to do whatever they want with no supervision. They require
constant feedback regarding their work (Altizer, 2010; Holt, 2018) and research has found
that they regard supervisors who neglect feedback loops negatively (Kultalahti & Viitala,
2015).

Evaluation of one’s work is a common practice for previous generations as well.

Feedback on performance has been evolving since the 1950s and the attitude towards it
has been changing with it (Anderson et al., 2016). It has been proven to be linked to
motivation and as millennials seem to be the most satisfied when working in collaborative
work environments (Holt, 2018), their higher need for feedback is understandable. They
want to have opportunities to develop their skills and to be given the chance to learn from
their mistakes so getting frequent feedback on the work they do is a much-preferred way
to improve their performance (Holt, 2018).

The millennial workforce’s need for more feedback has been associated with negative
connotations such as being too “needy” and requiring too much attention (Hershatter &

12
Epstein, 2010). This commonly mentioned characteristic may be explained by the fact
that millennials are born into the extensive use of technology (Calvo-Porral & Pesqueira-
Sanchez, 2019). With the use of smartphones, they are always in close contact with their
peers and are able to instantly get news, messages and answers to practically any
questions that might arise. Therefore, it is no surprise that a need for immediate and
frequent feedback has been developed (Holt, 2018).

2.1.7 Human connections at work

Gen Y requires more interpersonal relationships in the workplace and a better connection
with their bosses. Studies by Hershatter and Epstein (2010) state that 66% of millennial
students interviewed agreed that they wanted a close relationship with their superior, in
contrast only 52% of the previous generation (Gen X) wanted this. Expectations for this
relationship are evident and Han and Jekel (2011) state that this healthy connection can
also reduce disloyalty of employees. Having a relationship with the closest supervisor at
work is imperative and different leadership styles that better match the demands of this
generation are immensely appreciated (Kultalahti & Viitala, 2015).

A person’s willingness to stay at a company and be loyal has a lot to do with their
relationship with their manager and usually the direct supervisor is the reason they decide
to stay (Valenti, 2019). Regardless of the reason for starting a job, people are going to put
more importance on what directly influences their day-to-day than the company's vision
or even the compensation plan (Valenti, 2019). Han and Jekel (2011) discuss that most
often the reason for a person to quit has much less to do with the workplace or their job
but more with how their boss is, further stressing the importance of a healthy leader-
follower relationship (Kultalahti & Viitala, 2015).

13
2.2 Empowering leadership

2.2.1 Overview

Leadership practices can be very different based on various factors. In academia, an

abundance of leadership theories can be found as it is a field that has been studied for
decades (Dinh et al., 2014). The importance of implementing the right leadership
practices has been proven many times over and finding what works best in a particular
situation (e.g. at a certain company or regarding a specific generation) is crucial for the
success of not only the organization but the employees as well.

Of the many leadership theories, we use empowering leadership as a base for this
research. The emergence and growing application of empowering leadership can be
attributed to many reasons. Organizations’ hierarchical structures are becoming flatter;
fewer levels of decision making are necessary to keep up with the rapidly changing
surroundings; there is a larger reliance on teamwork and work assignments are getting
more complex (Sharma & Kirkman, 2015). Additionally, as we discussed above, the
workforce has changed as well, and today’s employees require different leadership
practices (Anderson et al., 2017).

Empowerment is commonly agreed to be two-fold in the literature; the two perspectives

are psychological empowerment and the socio-structure perspective (Cheong et al.,
2019). The former, also referred to as the micro perspective (Dewettinck & van Ameijde,
2011), means the perceptual aspect on the individual level whereas the latter, the macro
perspective (Dewettinck & van Ameijde, 2011), refers to the practices employed by
leaders that aim at empowering employees (Cheong et al., 2019). Scholars argue that
psychological empowerment can be enhanced by empowering leadership behaviors but
that the two perspectives should not be treated as one (Seibert et al., 2011). Dewettinck
and van Ameijde (2011) found evidence that intrinsic motivation (linked to psychological
empowerment) must be studied together with leadership practices as their study’s results
show the importance of the relationship between the leader and the employee. Therefore,
we want to establish here that we will focus on leadership practices that arguably have
impact on psychological empowerment.

14
The concept of empowering leadership generally refers to practices such as the delegation
of authority and decision making; the support of autonomous work; coaching; and sharing
power and responsibility (Sharma & Kirkman, 2015; Cheong et al., 2019). Having fewer
levels of management and more autonomy provided by this leadership style brings about
the feeling of self-direction and control over one’s work (Arnold et al., 2000). However,
research has also found that the impact of empowering leadership practices has a non-
linear nature; meaning that there is an inflection point, beyond which the effects cease to
be positive (Cheong et al., 2019).

2.2.2 Empowering leadership practices

Reading through the literature, we found some studies that, taken together, provide a
comprehensive overview of the behaviors that empowering leaders should employ.
Amundsen and Martinsen’s (2014) study on empowering leadership and Arnold et al.’s
(2000) and Konczak et al.’s (2000) scales contain most of the major themes that can be
found throughout academia. In their paper, Amundsen and Martinsen (2014) identify
three main dimensions of influence that empowering leadership behaviors fit into. The
categories are concerned with power-sharing, supporting employee motivation and being
supportive of their development. The other two aforementioned scales contain some of
the same practices but also have some additional dimensions. We found these to be very
much in line with what studies have shown to be important for Gen Y at the workplace
(as shown in 2.1). Therefore, we will discuss the specific leadership behaviors described
by Amundsen and Martinsen (2014), Arnold et al. (2000) and Konczak et al. (2000).

In the first category, power-sharing, delegation is one of the core practices that
empowering leaders should apply (Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014). Throughout literature,
it is conceptualized in slightly different ways, for example as participative decision
making (Arnold et al., 2000) or self-directed decision making (Konczak et al., 2000). The
main difference between the distinct conceptualizations can be found in the extent to
which they allow employees to have authority. Participative decision making is also
referred to as consultation (Yukl & Fu, 1999) and as such, describes a leadership behavior
where followers are encouraged to provide input that will be considered by the manager

15
before making a decision. However, the actual decision is still in the hands of the
supervisor.

Delegation in other studies, or self-directed decision making as proposed by Konczak et

al. (2000) goes beyond asking for opinions, as leaders who delegate give the power over
to the employees hence, they are encouraged to make their own decisions (Amundsen &
Martinsen, 2014). They argue that delegation is more appropriate for empowering
employees as it provides a deeper feeling of autonomy and thus more empowerment. We
agree with this viewpoint that has been stated by other scholars as well (Yukl & Fu, 1999;
Leana, 1987). Konczak et al.’s (2000) study contains delegation of authority as a similar
dimension which is also about power sharing with the aim to increase empowerment.
Literature states that getting responsibility for one’s own work can help build stronger
relationships between leaders and employees as it creates a feeling of being trusted by the
manager (Holt, 2018). Arnold et al. (2000) identified the dimension of showing concern
which ties into building trust between managers and employees as it refers to discussing
issues they might experience. This not only strengthens employees’ engagement with
their work but helps build human connections too as mutual trust allows for emotional
support (Li et al., 2016). Getting responsibility rarely comes without accountability which
Konczak et al. (2000) not only recognizes, but also includes as its own dimension.

Another element crucial in power sharing is information sharing (Amundsen &

Martinsen, 2014). It is also recognized as an important practice of empowering leadership
in both Arnold et al.’s (2000) and Konczak et al.’s (2000) scales. Employees’ access to
information in this context is about being aware of the company’s goals, visions and
strategies (Zhang et al., 2018). Researchers argue that in order for an employee to be able
to make decisions on their own, they need to have knowledge about these organizational
constraints (Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014). Without this knowledge, there is a risk of
them making decisions according to their own goals which might not be in line with the
overarching objectives of the company. Therefore, it is arguably important to have
adequate information flow so that employees are aware of the organizational boundaries
and can feel confident that they make appropriate decisions within their area of expertise.
Additionally, the information flow can happen in both directions, the other being towards
the manager. Arnold et al. (2000) included in their questionnaire a dimension they call

16
interacting with the team (as their study focuses on the empowerment of teams instead of
individuals) with which they address the importance of the leader being aware of the work
the employees are performing (Arnold et al., 2000).

Supporting employee motivation is the second dimension in Amundsen and Martinsen’s

(2014) study and consists of the encouragement of taking initiatives; reinforcing goal
orientation; supporting self-efficacy and inspiring employees through their actions.
Motivation has been proven to be influenced by leaders’ behaviors and shown to be one
of the main elements of empowerment by other researchers as well (Dewettinck & van
Ameijde, 2011; Konczak et al., 2000; Pelit et al., 2011). Although empowerment itself is
said to be a concept of motivation (Pelit et al., 2011), we would like to take the approach
of motivation support being a stream of manager behaviors as proposed by Amundsen
and Martinsen’s (2014) but we recognize that it is strongly connected to other aspects of
empowering leadership. They conclude that initiative-taking behavior of employees
should be encouraged by empowering managers in order to raise the levels of motivation
as it promotes active participation in one’s work.

Encouragement is identified in Arnold et al.’s (2000) scale but it refers to a broader sense
of encouragement, not just that of taking initiatives. They also mention setting self-
defined goals whose support is acknowledged as a distinct behavior in Amundsen and
Martinsen’s (2014) view. Having goals to pursue has been extensively studied in
psychology as a means to increase motivation (Ryan, 2019) as it gives purpose and
encourages action. Goal setting is studied in connection with empowering leadership in
literature as its complementary and as a tool used to enhance it as well (Dewettinck &
van Ameijde, 2011). Hence, encouraging goal orientation can arguably be considered a
core behavior that can help with feeling empowered (Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014).

However, solely setting goals is not enough, one must feel like they are capable of
reaching said goals as well. As mentioned earlier, the concept of psychological
empowerment also recognizes self-efficacy to have an important role in feeling
empowered (Kong et al., 2016). Further supporting the notion that empowering leaders
ought to support employees’ feeling of self-efficacy (Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014).
Accordingly, managers should demonstrate knowledge of and trust in their followers’

17
abilities to carry out tasks and to work autonomously to elevate levels of motivation and
thus, empowerment. Amundsen and Martinsen (2014) characterize inspiring behavior as
part of motivational support as well, which includes creating an environment where the
manager shows enthusiasm in future prospects.

Encouraging employees’ development is the third dimension of leadership behaviors

identified by Amundsen and Martinsen (2014). They include modeling and providing
guidance as the actual behaviors that leaders should employ to help the professional
growth of employees. Modeling generally refers to acting in such a way that encourages
employees to follow the manager’s lead by being a positive example (Amundsen &
Martinsen, 2015). This behavior is also shown in Arnold et al.’s (2000) scale as leading
by example. According to their work, it is about displaying commitment to their own and
their followers’ work as well, which in turn will encourage employees to be more
involved. Literature has shown that leaders who employees regard as role models, are
able to contribute to their subordinates’ self-efficacy (Cheong et al., 2016), thus
supporting the claim that leading by example should be a core competence of empowering
leaders (Amundsen & Martinsen, 2015).

Providing guidance is also considered a way to aid employee development (Amundsen

& Martinsen, 2014). This behavior is similar to those identified as coaching in Arnold et
al.’s (2000) and coaching for innovative performance in Konczak et al.’s (2000) scale of
empowering leadership. The latter also includes a dimension labelled skill development
that emphasizes the importance of the leader’s facilitator role in the development of
employees (Konczak et al.’s, 2000). This management practice includes encouragement,
teaching and support on the leader’s part (Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014) and can be used
to reinforce employees’ learning and development opportunities. Coaching is a practice
that has been studied in connection with empowering leadership (Cheong et al., 2019)
and therefore, is an important aspect that should be considered by managers who wish to
guide their employees’ development.

18
 Methodology
_____________________________________________________________________________________
This chapter includes the methodological background of the current study. It explains the
philosophical foundations on which we built the research. We describe our process of the
data generation and how we analyzed it to fulfill the research purpose outlined in the first
chapter.
______________________________________________________________________

3.1 Research philosophy

In order to be able to choose a course of action suitable for carrying out research, the
researchers first have to consider the philosophical underpinnings of their study.
Establishing how the authors perceive reality (ontology) and how they plan to understand
said reality (epistemology) has to be the first step as these views provide the foundation
for the research to be conducted (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018). Ontological positions can
take the form of realism, internal realism, relativism or nominalism where the four views
may be placed on a continuum ranging from the most objective (realism) to the most
subjective (nominalism) position (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018).

The ontological underpinnings of this paper are aligned with the relativist paradigm.
Relativist research is based on the assumption that there are multiple truths to any given
scenario, hence we argue that our research topic and therefore our results are relative to
who we talk to. The interpretation of the situation between millennials as employees and
their leaders would be different depending on which side we decide to ask. The
interviewees will shape and sculpt our research thus rendering it unique to our
interviewees’ perspective. We are interested in knowing about the Gen Y employees’
perspective thus we will interview people who belong to this group. Involving several
people with different experiences gives us the opportunity to paint a more colorful picture.
Since we want to find out what millennials think of their own situation, it is imperative
that we ask them and not other people to speak on their behalf as they would have a
distinct perception of the same reality.

19
Having established our ontological viewpoint, we must also explain how we want to
explore reality. The two contrasting positions of epistemology are positivism and social
constructionism. While the positivist approach can be linked to exploring phenomena
objectively and thus suggests the effective use of quantitative methods, social
constructionists believe in the importance of learning about individuals’ experiences
(Easterby-Smith et al., 2018). Given the nature of our study, our epistemological approach
is social constructionism since we want to discover people’s distinct experiences and
make sense of their reality. We conducted a qualitative study where we do not aim to
have quantifiable results. The open and flexible nature of qualitative research is the most
fitting approach to our study as we wanted to explore our subjects’ own interpretations of
their experiences (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018). When conducting qualitative research,
the researchers typically take a humanistic approach (Azungah, 2018) and focus on the
behaviors and feelings of the participants of the study. Since we aim to discover why and
when millennials feel content with their work and the intricacies of their behaviors, a
qualitative approach was deemed necessary.

An abundance of research has been carried out using quantitative methods in this area of
study, given the popularity of generational studies and motivation. This is another reason
for why we searched for an opportunity where we can leverage the benefits of qualitative
research as we want to bring a fresh perspective to this field of research. We had semi-
structured interviews and the answers were translated through our interpretation of reality.
The analysis of our data collected through interviews are influenced by our views and our
studies.

3.2 Research approach

The researchers’ choice about what kind of approach they take to analyzing data is crucial
when conducting an academic study. It is imperative that the researchers choose an
approach that is in line with what they are going to observe. As we are doing a qualitative
study, it is of great importance that we pick the best suited approach. Initially, inductive
was one of interest as it allows the researchers to only focus on the account and
experiences of our interviewees to a deeper level and derive conclusions from their
perspective (Azungah, 2018). However, we quickly realized that neither deductive nor

20
inductive were perfectly suitable and a more hybrid, open form of analysis was instead
seen as the best option, this being the abductive approach. This way of analysis allows
for both topics to emerge from our data like with inductive, but it also allows us to analyze
the data with some theoretical underpinnings from before, which in our case is
generational studies and empowering leadership. Abductive analysis provides the
researcher with a way of thinking about their own research in a manner that allows for
theory addition without locking them in to a set-in stone approach to the data (Tavory &
Timmermans, 2014).

In line with our epistemological position of social constructionism, abductive analysis

emphasizes the symbiosis of variation, theorization, and observation under the same lens.
This method allows for evaluation of different steps within the research and for it to be
more dynamic and less static (Tavory & Timmermans, 2014). As Tavory and
Timmermans (2014) mention in their book, they feel that the current ways of conducting
research and current methods are removing the joy of research and theory addition. “The
thrill of research resides precisely in the way in which we muddle through and puzzle out
aspects of our research project” (Tavory & Timmermans, 2014, p. 7), emphasizing that
the differences in the research and what makes it unique is what is of interest. As we have
leeway with our methodology, we allow ideas and findings to be derived more freely from
our dataset.

3.3 Research Design

Since we are interested in learning about the millennial workforce and all the intricacies
of their needs and wants, we chose to create primary data by establishing long in-depth
interviews (Flick, 2018). By allowing the interviewees to mention what they personally
believe is important and have their needs in focus, it brought out a more personal touch.
This was done to create a more comfortable setting where the interviewees would feel
more at ease opening up about their personal opinions and experiences that were not
always pleasant. By making the environment informal, we were hoping to allow for a
more honest and open dialogue which would help enrich our data and create a sense of
authenticity (Denscombe, 2021).

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3.3.1 Sampling

Given the scope and purpose of our study, we chose to delimit the sample universe
(Robinson, 2014) to people born between 1981 and 1999 as this is the age group that we
are interested in. We also had to exclude self-employed and blue-collar employees to be
able to focus on the corporate setting. Furthermore, only employees are of interest to us
as we are studying their perspective and not that of managers, thus leaders had to be
excluded too. To avoid mixing distinct cultures and to achieve geographic homogeneity
(Robinson, 2014), the selected interviewees all work in European countries. It is
important when conducting qualitative research to decide on a desired sample size that is
enough to acquire substantial amount of data (Robinson, 2014). We aimed to have 10 to
15 interviews of about an hour each as this seems adequate to carry out in-depth analysis
within this research design.

We used our network to reach out to potential participants from our previously defined
sample universe. Using convenience sampling (Denscombe, 2021), we sent an invitation
to those that responded to our inquiry after deciding on a suitable time. We also sent every
interviewee an information sheet (Appendix 1) beforehand giving a brief overview of our
topic allowing them to have some general idea.

Some of our respondents had just recently started working in their current position but
they all had previous experience, so we adjusted the questions referring to the jobs they
had before in these cases. This did not corrupt the data generated since we are
investigating what makes Gen Y employees satisfied in the workplace which can be
discussed in the context of both current and past employments.

3.3.2 Data generation

We conducted a total of 14 interviews that were around an hour long each. However, we
were not able to use one of our interviews in our data analysis because we realized while
collecting the data that the interviewee did not fit our sample universe. We considered

22
changing the definition of the sample universe to make the participant fit but decided
against it as we came to the conclusion that the target group was well defined for our
purpose. Therefore, we had 13 interviews that we could dive into which resulted in a total
of 11 hours and 49 minutes of recording with an average of 54 minutes and 35 seconds
each. To make the interview process run more smoothly, we decided beforehand to have
one interviewer ask the main questions and the other taking notes of what was being said.
The reason behind this was to make the interviews flow easier and more focused by
avoiding the interviewer lose their train of thought by taking notes at the same time. This
also created a better environment for the interviewee as it was less static and more
dynamic this way.

We aimed to make sure the participants were comfortable and could be open with us
(Denscombe, 2021) thus, we always started out by having an unrelated chat with them
and then some ice-breaker questions which is seen in our interview guide, (Appendix 2)
as the first three questions. We ensured that our background was not distracting, the
microphones were working properly and we had a quiet environment so we could all stay
as focused as possible. The calm atmosphere also helped make the interviewees more
comfortable which ultimately led us to have richer and more honest data. Before we dove
into the interviews, we explained a bit about our topic to the participants, which they had
already read in the information sheet we sent them beforehand (Denscombe, 2021). We
believe that another reason for receiving honest answers was the general interest about
the topic they all expressed, as we had a small informal chat afterwards with every
participant, where they were able to reflect on the interview and our research.

We chose to hold the interviews in the same language as this would decrease the room
for translation and interpretation errors. We believe that by keeping the language of the
data generation the same, we were aiming to avoid discrepancies when coding. The
interviews were held in English but all of our interviewees’ first language was one that at
least one of us spoke, in case they felt like they could express their thoughts better in their
native tongue. We understand that with this approach, there is a risk of some people being
unable to articulate their opinions to the fullest. To mitigate this risk, we made sure that
the participants were comfortable speaking English beforehand and to let them switch to
their native tongue when they struggled with a word. In these cases, we translated on the

23
spot in agreement with the interviewee to make sure we caught the essence of what they
wished to express. Keeping the language the same also makes it more authentic to our
study as we are writing in English and we believe that data generation and results of the
research should be done in the same language.

We had prepared an interview guide (Appendix 2) with leading questions that we asked
during all of our interviews and that gave the basis of these conversations. We added
follow-up questions to the prepared ones in the interview guide on the spot based on the
interviewees’ answers when deemed necessary, to find out more about certain topics. We
sometimes had to adjust the structure of the questions as participants many times brought
up the issues we planned to explore later on. The interview guide was updated when
additional questions surfaced during the interviews by the participants bringing up other
values they deemed important. This was done in line with the flexibility provided by semi-
structured interviews (Azungah, 2018) and our abductive research approach.

We took an indirect approach when collecting our data. This was done because we wanted
to avoid leading participants into using words such as empower. We wished to find out if
millennial employees fall into the characteristics commonly associated with them
regardless of the industry they work in and the type of jobs they do without prompting.
The main themes of our questions aimed at investigating what they want in the workplace.
We asked about leadership directly as well but put the most emphasis on how Gen Y feels
at the workplace in general to then be able to analyze if this is fitting with empowering
leadership. We justify our indirect approach with the very nature of empowering
leadership. At the core of it is giving autonomy to the employees (Sharma & Kirkman,
2015; Cheong et al., 2019; Arnold et al., 2000) which is in line with millennials describing
their ideal workplace mostly independent of the leader but then also reflecting on how
much of it rests on having a good manager.

3.3.3 Data analysis

Having opted to do a qualitative study where the source of our data is interviews, we
ended up with complex data sets that needed to be analyzed on their own and also with

24
relation to each other and our research question. The possible approaches to the analysis
of such textual data aim to reduce this complexity so that the researchers are able to make
sense of the immense amount of findings they set out to understand (Easterby-Smith et
al., 2018). We examined many different analytical methods however, to our abductive
approach we found thematic analysis to be the most fitting for our study. More
specifically, we chose theoretical thematic analysis since this form of the method allows
for the codes and themes to be inspired by not only the data but also the theoretical
underpinnings of the research (Braun & Clarke, 2006). We constructed our interview
guide in a way that would allow for the process of data generation to be focused around
themes that emerged mainly based on the theoretical foundations of our research topic.
However, we also let codes emerge from the data itself without having to fit into pre-
determined themes. We found this flexibility to be in line with the way the data was
generated and overall essential to our research as well, as we opted for more open
approaches and techniques throughout the study.

The pre-determined codes in our study were based on the two aspects of the research that
we wished to combine. By formulating our interview guide based on what the millennial
workforce generally wants and needs according to the literature, mixed together with
empowering leadership practices established in academia, we had a strong base for the
data analysis.

As stated above, during the generation of our data we were simultaneously taking notes
too which we found to be useful for a couple of reasons. Firstly, by taking notes we were
forced to already start making sense of the information since notetaking has been shown
to encourage thinking and learning (Bohay et al., 2011), which in our case translates to
memorizing data and deeper understanding of the information. Secondly, we were able
to use these notes to start identifying codes that we could then find justification for in the
actual transcripts.

25
3.3.4 Data analysis process

As we based our thematic analysis on the work of Braun and Clarke (2006), we adapted
the steps suggested by them to our study. The process of our data analysis is described
below.

Step 1: Familiarizing yourself with your data

As we used Microsoft Teams to conduct the interviews, we had the opportunity to use the
automatic transcription function. Therefore, we had an initial transcript of each interview
right after finishing them and the first step in our analysis was to revise the texts as there
were some misspelled words and other mistakes to be corrected. By having a first draft
that we just had to look over and polish, we saved a lot of time. This was also found to be
useful for the analysis, as we intently listened to the interviews again and refreshed our
memory. While correcting the transcripts, we made sure to substitute the names of our
interviewees to codenames (A, B, C, etc.) to remove any possible bias we would have had
if we associated certain quotes with specific people.

We read through all the transcripts and highlighted what we initially found to be
interesting and either fitting into the pre-determined themes or having the promise of
creating new ones. After the initial read-through, we had a comprehensive understanding
of the data we had generated which allowed for the next stage to begin.

Step 2: Generating initial codes

After familiarizing ourselves with the whole data set, we began to create codes based on
the transcripts and the notes we took during the interviews. We made sure to keep in mind
that in this phase of the analysis, we are allowed to have codes that might not fit into any
theme later on. Since we took the theory-driven approach, we tackled the data we had
generated with pre-determined ideas in mind. However, we did not want to limit our
findings so we kept an open mind while generating the codes and let new topics emerge
in the process from the data. It is also important in this step to let inconsistencies appear
which we were able to interpret as two sides of the same coin. Thus, in some cases we

26
decided to assign the same code to seemingly contradicting extracts, since we accepted
that they can be used to describe the same phenomenon from different angles.

Step 3: Searching for themes

Having produced the initial codes from the data set, we then moved on to looking for
themes. We commenced an intensive overview of the codes and organized them into
themes which were both inspired by literature and our own research. As we ended up with
a plethora of codes within each theme that had overlapping features at times, to avoid
confusion and the loss of extracts and codes, we used Microsoft Excel to visualize the
analysis. Using the software allowed us to easily move codes around to make sure that
we were placing them in the most fitting themes.

Step 4: Reviewing themes

The next step in the process was to revise the themes and the codes they contain. For the
analysis to be as accurate as it can be, it is important to make sure that every extract and
every code is represented in the theme where it makes the most sense. During this stage,
we had to ensure that the codes in each theme make a coherent system and can be analyzed
within the context of that theme. Where this was not the case, we assessed the placement
of the code in question and, examining all the other themes, we decided which one it fit
into. A review of the themes themselves in relation to the dataset was also necessary and
is performed in this stage in thematic analysis. It is important that the themes created
adequately represent the findings of the study and allow for a comprehensive analysis
encompassing the essence of the research. The themes also had to be in line with the
purpose of the study and our research question.

Step 5: Defining and naming themes

The final step before writing down our findings was to refine the themes. As they form
the basis for the analysis, it is imperative that they encapsulate all the relevant findings.
We made sure that the themes were accurate and contained the codes in a collected
manner so that their placement made sense within the theme and regarding the overall

27
structure of the analysis as well. In the case of some particularly complex themes, we
were able to restructure them, when necessary, with the purpose of making them more
concise. Naming the themes was done while keeping in mind that they ought to give the
reader an initial idea of what each of them is about. When we were able to define the
themes separately and in the context of all the findings accurately, we were ready to move
on to the next step.

Step 6: Producing the report

The last step was the creation of the research paper. The main challenge of this stage is
making sure that the account of the data is done in a coherent manner, where the codes
and themes are analyzed in accordance with the purpose of the research. We illustrated
our analysis with several extracts that were chosen to adequately demonstrate the points
that we were making. We analyzed the data in a way that would allow us to answer the
research question based on our findings.

3.4 Research quality

To ensure the quality of a qualitative study, the researchers must be aware of the different
elements that need to be assessed (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018). It is important that we
acknowledge the differences between quantitative and qualitative research in how the
quality of it may be evaluated. While quantitative researchers are able to use objective
measures to ensure quality, in qualitative studies we must turn to a more subjective
approach. Therefore, as qualitative researchers we do not aim to statistically generalize
but internally generalize instead (Easterby-Smith et al., 2018). We cannot be as rigorous
as if we were conducting quantitative research however, there are still ways in which we
can ensure the trustworthiness of the study. To do so, we have followed Guba’s (1981)
categories and we divided this part accordingly: credibility; transferability, dependability
and confirmability.

28
3.4.1 Credibility

Ensuring the credibility of the research findings is imperative for the quality of the study.
This refers to making sure that there are no miscommunications with what the
interviewees said and how we interpreted it. To reduce this risk we added follow up
questions to get a deeper understanding and would ask for clarification on a point where
we did not understand. The same thing was done when our interviewees would speak in
their native tongue, we would translate and get their confirmation on the right word
choice, further adding to the credibility of our study. To minimize bias both researchers
were present at all the interviews and the whole coding and analytical process was done
together to jointly interpret the data.

3.4.2 Transferability

One of the main differences between quantitative and qualitative research is that the latter
is highly dependent on the context in which it was conducted. Therefore, it cannot be
replicable since the context will always be different. However, by providing thick
descriptions of sampling, data generation and analysis, we ensured that the study is
transferable to different contexts. Ideally, to enable the complete transferability of the
research, detailed account of the interviewees should be provided. However, to avoid the
participants being identifiable, we were not able to elaborate on information such as what
company they work for, as we promised them complete anonymity.

3.4.3 Dependability

Qualitative researchers must ensure the consistency of their research to enable the
stability of the data. One of the ways to ensure trustworthiness is to have an audit trail
that is easy to follow. Therefore, we documented every step of the research process and
we kept records of it. We have all the recordings, the transcripts of the interviews and the
extracts with the codes assigned to them. This was done not only to ensure the durability
of the data but also to help us with the process.

29
3.4.4 Confirmability

To ensure neutrality in our research we made sure to both be present in every aspect of
the research. This included the interviews and also the coding and data analysis. Making
sure that we were both present it reduces the likelihood of discrepancies between the
researchers, which may have arose had we done this separately. As we had many preset
questions in our interview guide, it allows for comparability which makes the study easy
to be confirmed by other researchers. This was further increased by the detailed
description of our philosophical foundations in 3.1.

3.5 Ethical considerations

Ethical considerations should be ingrained in every step in the whole duration of the study
(Easterby-Smith et al., 2018) to make sure we do not violate any of the participants’ rights
and that we remain ethical throughout the process. We used Bell and Bryman’s (2007)
principles as the ethical underpinnings of our study.

We avoided harming our participants’ physical well-being by conducting the interviews

through Microsoft Teams. This helped us mitigate the risk of spreading Covid-19 as
seeing each other in person would endanger both parties. As for their psychological well-
being, we ensured that they were comfortable with the proceedings and the topic of our
study. They always had the opportunity to refuse answering a question if they did not feel
comfortable with it. This was also done with the intention to respect the dignity of the
participants, as we ensured them that all answers were welcome, and we ensured an open
flow of communication.

Before every interview, we sent a GDPR Consent form (Appendix 3) for them to read
through and sign, plus we asked for verbal consent in the beginning of the interviews
when we also gave them space to ask any questions they might have. To ensure there was
no occurrence of invasion of privacy, we did not ask for any information that was out of
the scope of our study. We always asked for verbal confirmation from the participants to
record and transcribe the interview to reinforce confidentiality (Denscombe, 2021). The
interviewees were reassured that their anonymity will be respected as we informed them

30
that they will be assigned codenames. Accordingly, none of our documents contain the
names of the interviewees.

We were honest with the participants about the study’s purpose and we further avoided
deception by sending them the information sheet beforehand and also verbally informing
them about the nature of our research. To inform them about our affiliation, we told them
that our master thesis was conducted within Global Management at Jönköping University.
Therefore, we created honesty and transparency by having honest dialogues and open
conversations. Participants showed interest in the topic and they thanked us for giving
them space to reflect on their experiences. Therefore, mutual benefit was ensured to both
the researchers and the interviewees allowing for reciprocity to emerge. To ensure that
we do not have any misinterpretations we always asked the participants directly if we
translated a word for them if that was indeed what they meant. Furthermore, we looked
over the transcriptions with a fine comb and made sure it matched the recordings
perfectly. Having us both work on this process minimized the risk for anything to be
misinterpreted or lead to any misunderstandings.

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 Empirical findings and analysis
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The purpose of this part is to not only present the data but also to analyze it in regards to
fulfilling the purpose of this study and answering the research question. The section is
divided up based on the themes identified.
______________________________________________________________________

Once the coding section was completed, we reviewed the different themes and made our
codes more concise, which lead us to have a total of 8 different themes with a total of 26
codes. The different themes came from both parts of our literature namely, empowering
leadership and what the millennial generation wants. However, due to the approach of the
analysis we let both themes and codes emerge from the data without strict confinement
of where it should appear beforehand. The different themes were Autonomy,
Development, Intellectual Stimulation, Feedback, Work-life balance, Being content at
work, Manager and Corporate Environment.

Figure 1: Structure of findings

4.1 Autonomy

Our first theme is autonomy, which entails all the aspects of being independent in one's
work and being able to carry out tasks without being too boxed in. Having autonomy adds
to the feeling of being valued and being important to the company. A sense of belonging
and purpose adds to the employee motivation and makes them more engaged and feel
empowered. In this section we have five codes: Flexible working hours, Responsibility
over workday, Hybrid working conditions; Task-related autonomy and Being trusted.

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4.1.1 Flexible working hours

Allowing for flexible working hours has been shown to be attractive to the millennial
workforce when choosing a new employer as discussed in 2.1.3. This is something that
has been proven by our research since most of our interviewees mentioned this as
something of importance when asked about ideal working conditions. A total of nine
interviewees mentioned that having flexible workdays is a positive attribute that they
currently experience at work. Feeling free to carry out one’s work regardless of the exact
time spent on it or when this will occur makes them feel empowered. Interviewee G said,
“There have been situations where, you know, I've been able to just log off midday no
questions asked, no sort of monitoring”. Being able to clock off when one feels it is
appropriate and not forced to stay until the end of the official workday for the sole purpose
of completing hours is something that brings value and a sense of freedom to the
employee which is something that millennials appreciate.

In some instances, this freedom may look different but, overall, it is the sense that there
is some room for malleability as explained by Interviewee K “I have to be there in the
morning and the afternoon is more flexible. And if you have an appointment, my bosses
don't care […] as long as you come back or just do your job”. Interviewee C’s account
of their experience is a clear indication that even though there are parameters for the
interviewee to be at work, it is still flexible for at least two hours a day and that freedom
makes it easier to complete tasks: “So, you have to be at the office 8 hours, but you only
have to be there between 9:00 and 3:30 so the final two hours, you can do what you
want”. Similar thoughts and feelings of this type of flexibility being appreciated was
echoed by the majority of the participants in our study.

4.1.2 Responsibility over workday

In contrast to the previous code, this one entails the actual designing and choosing of how
one can control one’s own workday. Being able to have control over how one’s day looks
in regards to how they carry out their work and when they do it is another part of freedom.

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They felt the liberty of being in control as shown in the quote below when the interviewee
highlights the importance of the responsibility the employees are given:

“Sometimes we say like I need to block my calendar during a few hours so that I can get
work done. I can't just be in meetings all day, we say that employees are responsible for
designing their workday.” (Interviewee A)

The designing of the workday can take different forms as emphasized by the following
examples. “When we start, I know. But like when I end, it's more like when you feel done
for the day” (Interviewee K). As shown by this extract, an employee can have some
compulsory parts to their day but also be free to schedule the rest of it as they see fit.
Another approach can be to know beforehand what they have to do for the whole week
and have the freedom to make their own schedule around that: “I can see the schedule of
the meetings that I already have for the week. And other than that, I can do really
whatever I want“ (Interviewee M). Even though there are distinct ways an employer can
provide this freedom to their employees, the overarching consensus is that this is
something of value and should be a standard practice for the modern workforce.

4.1.3 Hybrid working conditions

Working from home has become more widespread due to the impacts of Covid-19 and it
has become more of a common practice. The companies that our interviewees work for
have implemented hybrid working conditions allowing their employees to work not only
from the office but also from the comfort of their home. In most cases, they have the
opportunity to decide where they want to do their work from and based on the interviews
we had, we believe having this choice is what makes the flexibility invaluable. This
thought was captured by Interviewee K when they said “I do like this flexibility and being
able to work from home one day and […] mostly at the office but it's always nice to have
the opportunity”. Similarly, Interviewee J also emphasized that certain assignments might
be more effectively done without the distractions of being in the office: “I mean some
days if you need more privacy, what we've done now after the pandemic is that we actually
have two digital days, so Mondays and Fridays are days when everyone gets to choose“.

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The importance of having a balance between working from the office and from home is
evident from our interviews. Almost all of the 13 interviewees said that they would not
prefer being fully in the office nor at home, the latter of which might seem surprising at
first. “I wouldn't want to go back to five days a week at home. I would probably go quite
insane” (Interviewee J). However, this need for a combination of both options is
explained throughout the interviews. The millennial workforce realized that not seeing
their coworkers for weeks on end is not ideal so, they want to have the option for spending
some days working remotely but still be in the office with their colleagues as well. “The
drawbacks of working from home means that you kind of miss out on a lot of the
communication” (Interviewee B). The hybrid working conditions are justified by the
feeling of the participants of the study that they can be more productive when they work
from home but feel more connection to their colleagues when they can physically be in
the same space with them accentuating the need for both. As Interviewee E put it: “I feel
like when you come to work, it's more like a social interaction rather than getting work
done. I feel like you're talking a lot with your colleagues, bonding with them. But of course
you talk a lot about work, but when it comes to like, actually physically [getting work
done], I feel like I perform better at home“.

4.1.4 Task-related autonomy

Our interviewees talked a lot about how much they value their freedom and it was not
confined to their working hours. They also appreciate task-related autonomy emphasizing
the value they see in having flexibility in their jobs. Our participants are also aware that
they can demand autonomy as it is something that is essential for people “I think
[freedom] is necessary overall for people” (Interviewee J). Task-related freedom can be
seen in two ways namely, choosing what assignments one wishes to work on and how
one wants to carry out certain tasks. During our interview process, the liberty in the way
in which assignments were completed was more evident with some participants also
mentioning that they have the opportunity to pick tasks for themselves: “I also have the
freedom to choose what I'm doing […] I can also easily, like, go a bit outside of my
responsibility area” (Interviewee I).

35
Whatever approach was taken when examining task-related autonomy in our interviews,
the participants recognized that the freedom that they can be given should not be limitless.
Having too much freedom has the possibility of being counterproductive, so it is
imperative that the overall goal is communicated and understood by the employee. Two
of our interviewees reflected on this matter and expressed being aware of the boundaries
and purpose of their tasks:

“Yes, obviously you don't have complete freedom because there's always, you know, sort
of a higher mission or goal you're trying to accomplish, but definitely freedom.”
(Interviewee F)

“We have a task then we normally know the main purpose and everything, and then we
figure out how we should do it.” (Interviewee M)

Having a purpose coupled with the freedom to reach that goal leads to higher productivity.
Our participants appreciated the autonomy they were given within a limited scope but
also valued having those boundaries. If an employee does not have knowledge of the
goals and the reasons behind the assignments and they are not being acknowledged in any
way, they can feel their motivation plummet as Interviewee I said: “It feels like sometimes
I just do it for myself and I don't really actually make an impact in the company with the
analysis I'm doing […] I think then you can kind of also catch yourself sometimes like, I
don't really do 100% of work for a week because no one checks, no one cares”. The
interviewee is raising concerns that they are not sure what the direction of the company
is or the reason behind doing the tasks. Doing things blindly and without guidance makes
the employee question the validity of the work they are doing and if it is correct.

Some participants also expressed their dislike of not having the level of freedom they felt
was necessary for them. Like Interviewee E said about a previous work experience: “I
felt I was more limited in what I actually worked on […] it felt like I was less creative
[…] because I had less freedom”. They ultimately ended up leaving that job for
something where they felt they would have more autonomy thus proving the importance
of being able to have some control over one’s work.

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4.1.5 Being trusted

The reason why autonomy is held in such high regards is because being given freedom in
one’s work increases the sense of being trusted by the manager. This was evident in all
of the interviews we conducted as something they greatly appreciate, for example:

“[I think it] would be nice [to have] like someone that manages you, but also kind of
leaves you your own freedom and kind of trusts you that you're doing your work, but also
sometimes just checks and asks how's it going?” (Interviewee I)

One of our interviewees talked about trust being something that the manager grants to
new hires without them having to earn it first: “My new boss basically said we wouldn't
want to hire people we couldn't trust to do that anyway, and that was nice to hear. So
yeah, it means a lot, definitely” (Interviewee F). This was clearly appreciated and shows
that the millennial workforce is able to acknowledge freedom without the intention to
abuse it. Being given flexibility also adds to the employee feeling trust towards the leader
which allows for a mutually beneficial experience. This thought was echoed by
Interviewee H when they talked about trust being a two-way street: “I also feel like I don't
pressure her with anything like she can trust me and I can trust her”.

Five of our interviewees (A, C, G, J, M) reflected on how micromanaging by their

manager would deter trust. They expressed gratitude for having leaders who give them
the freedom they require and said that they do not have any negative experiences with the
opposite. Interviewee G also shone light on the negative effects micromanaging can have
on employees’ abilities to solve problems on their own: “You're gonna end up getting
used to being told what to do and when it comes time to think critically or independently,
you're not going to be able to do it”. This would not be ideal for any leader as having
employees who can only follow orders and not think for themselves is counterproductive.

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4.2 Development

The second theme in our analysis is about opportunities to grow in different ways. This
was one of the most heavily discussed themes as it concerns the future of the interviewees
and how they can grow both as individuals and professionals. The significance of this
theme is demonstrated with the vast number of extracts that it contains as it shows that
the participants of our study put a lot of emphasis on it. The theme contains the following
codes: Skill development, Career development.

4.2.1 Skill development

Developing one’s skills is seen as a crucial aspect that the employer needs to provide to
satisfy the millennial workforce based on our interviews. The practice implemented by
Interviewee A’s employer is a good example of what the support of development can look
like: “[They] also advise everyone to spend about 2 hours a week on learning as part of
their job”. They expressed great appreciation towards the employer emphasizing
individual growth to such an extent that it is part of business as usual. This was even
further highlighted by Interviewee J saying that the development opportunities go outside
company boundaries “We're offered courses and trainings […] but then we also have the
opportunity to take university courses if we want to”. The employer offering this,
arguably adds to job satisfaction by reiterating that the care for the employee is not
confined within company walls.

An employer investing in their employees’ skill development is more likely to be

considered a desirable workplace for Gen Y: “You don’t go to an employer just to make
money, you go there to become an expert in what you do” (Interviewee G). Supporting
skill-wise development is therefore a behavior that a leader should employ with the
purpose of satisfying millennial needs. Our interviewees are admittedly hungry for
knowledge and widening their repertoire: “For me as an individual, I like learning new
things, so I often jump at the opportunity when given” (Interviewee J).

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4.2.2 Career development

On top of skill-wise development, having future role prospects or space to grow within
one’s current role is also considered important. Based on out interviews, millennials put
value to knowing that they have an individual goal to work towards and that they get
support for pursuing that goal. This makes them feel not only more secure about the
future, but also valued, as it gives the sense that the company or the manager invests in
the employee. This is in line with what Interviewee A said: “There is a good plan that
goes one year forward at the time. But even afterwards, I know that I will get a fixed
position”. Having these prospects helps the employee feel content with where they are
and removes worries in this volatile society which we live in.

Two of our interviewees (F and I) expressed that having room for future role prospects
does not necessarily have to be within the company and they appreciate that
accomplishing something at their current employer can be positive for CV building.
“Now I get to add that to my CV and it only makes me more valuable as a developer when
I move on to another job in the future” (Interviewee F). This perspective is perhaps not a
positive one for an employer however, having more knowledgeable employees is a benefit
even though it may make them more poachable in the future. On the other hand,
participants also emphasized that having a possible future laid out for them makes an
employer more attractive. This was a major influence on Interviewee E when choosing
their current job: “So I know what I will be doing in a couple months taking on a certain
role. So it was exciting. So I knew going in what they saw for me which I think is very
useful”.

Having opportunities for growth was one of the most reoccurring themes mentioned by
the interviewees when they were talking about what they consider to be some of the most
attractive qualities of an employer: “But this [position] here seemed to have the most
exciting growth opportunities” (Interviewee A). Motivation can also come from being
able to look back on one’s work and see the growth that they have already made. Being
able to see that gives a feeling of accomplishment and further fuels the desire to continue
growing: “I could really see the progress that I made and how I learned more and how I
get better at my job” (Interviewee I).

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As important as growth is for millennials, the lack of it was one of the main reasons they
mentioned to be a deciding factor when they felt like they had to change jobs: “[Not
having growth opportunities] kind of forces me in a position where I need to constantly
kind of monitor whether my best interest is to continue working or whether my best
interest is to find something new” (Interviewee G). Having an employee who is not fully
focused on their work and instead thinking about opportunities is less than ideal for an
employer. Not having room for growth can invoke a sense of stagnation and lead to loss
of motivation and interest in one’s job. Whilst carrying out the interviews, we noticed
that the people who are happy with their jobs were the ones who could see potential
growth for themselves within the company. This further proves that having room for
growth not only salary-wise but also regarding careers has become a need rather than a
desire for the modern workforce.

“[If] I would just feel stuck somehow. Then I might have to change.” (Interviewee L)

“There was definitely like motivation there to leave not just the salary [but] the lack of
positional growth.” (Interviewee F)

4.3 Intellectual stimulation

The next theme that emerged from our data is intellectual stimulation. Similarly to
development opportunities, if there is a lack of stimulation, it can lead to stagnation
resulting in disinterest in one’s work. This can also be seen as an indirect tool for personal
and professional growth and also adds interest to one’s work which can keep employees
passionate and engaged. The codes in this theme are Challenging work and Varied work.
In our study, having challenges is working on things that require some critical thinking
and creativity, whereas varied tasks mean having different tasks and assignments making
work interesting.

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4.3.1 Challenging work

All of our interviewees highlighted the fact that having a job where they feel challenged
is important to them. A lack of stimulation is detrimental to one’s will to be involved at
work, this is shown by interviewee I: “Yeah, because it feels like I was more busy with
my work […] I think I definitely prefer to be busier rather than bored at work”. When
speaking about their previous job, they reflected that they prefer more engaging and
challenging work. As they compared their current position to their prior, they came to the
conclusion that being challenged leads to a higher interest in their job and more
satisfaction. Everyone in our study agreed on the desire to be challenged which is
encapsulated by this exert from interviewee E “I'm definitely being challenged because
I'm getting questions […] I haven't usually worked with, so that's interesting”.

The desire to be challenged is also evident when the participants talk about the lack of it
being a significant problem for them. Three interviewees (E, I, M) expressed their dislike
about feeling like they are not faced with enough challenges either in their current or
previous position. For example: “It's very important for me which is why […] at one point
I changed from one job to another because I felt like I wasn’t challenged enough”
(Interviewee E); “I think it's a lot of different things that come my way, but nothing that
really pushes my professional skills […] I think I would like to change that a little bit”
(Interviewee I). Having challenges has been shown to be imperative for the millennial
workforce which was further emphasized by our study as our interviewees put a lot of
weight to it.

Wanting to have challenging tasks but not feel overwhelmed by them was discussed by
four participants in our study (A, B, D, F) who talked about how important it is to have
the right amount of challenges. For instance: “I also want to be challenged but kind of in
a controlled manner […] I mean, you want stuff going on, but you don't want too much
and you don't want to little as well” (Interviewee B); “I personally like challenges and it
brings a little bit of creativity [but] it's a must that they don't expect too much from you
or the impossible” (Interviewee D). The interviewees were clear about their need for a
balance between challenging work when it is stimulating and satisfying, and when it
makes them feel like they cannot deliver on the expectations. Being challenged to a

41
healthy extent is paramount for feeling empowered and engaged to your work, while
having work that is too challenging can come at a cost of being over stimulating and
leading to the employee to feel burnt-out.

4.3.2 Varied work

A slightly different approach to being intellectually stimulated at work is having versatile

assignments. Eight participants reflected on enjoying their job when they got to work on
different tasks and having a more varied scope of possible job assignments. For example:

“I cannot say that I have two days and they are the same because everything is different
always and I really enjoy it.” (Interviewee M)

“Every day is different, which I like […] You kind of don't know what's gonna happen
when you step into work in the morning. Which is also another thing that's important to
me, that it's not repetitive because if it is, then it gets boring.” (Interviewee H)

The two quotes above indicate that the interviewees enjoy having the opportunity to work
on different things every day. This might not be feasible at each and every workplace but
having a high level of versatility is clearly desirable for the employees. Being bored is
something they want to avoid and they feel that having the possibility for varying jobs is
one of the best ways to circumvent that.

Similarly to how the interviewees were able to reflect on the different experiences they
had with challenging work, eight of them ruminated over their feelings of not having
enough variety in their jobs too. Some spoke hypothetically when thinking about what
they would consider to be a reason to look for other employers, and some recounted
previous experiences. Interviewee B used quite harsh words to describe how they would
feel if they did not get to work on distinct tasks: “Because if you're just, like in your
comfort zone all the time, then you're going to get bored […] I would be just like a
computer, repetitive and in like, boxed-in and grey and boring”. Work being monotonous
and repetitive dehumanizes jobs and makes an employee feel not empowered.

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The desire for variability is so strong that some might consider changing jobs because of
it in the hopes of getting more stimulation elsewhere: “Now, right now I would not say
my job is like that, but there have been times when I felt it's a bit monotonous, not
currently at my current job but before. And then I felt like I wanted to change because I
feel like I want more varied assignments” (Interviewee E). This is a reoccurring theme in
our interviews, when they are not satisfied with some aspect of the job that really matters
to them, they look for something else that might satisfy their needs better.

4.4 Feedback

Millennials like to get feedback on their work and this was discussed with our
interviewees as well. Hearing others’ evaluation about what one has done, be it from a
manager or from a colleague, is arguably something that helps a great deal with
development which has been established as important for the participants of this study.
The codes in this theme are Continuous feedback and Developmental purposes.

4.4.1 Continuous feedback

We learned from the interviews we conducted that employees do not necessarily want
formal and extensive feedback all the time. They do prefer to have it regularly, besides
the formal evaluation meetings that are often standard, they also appreciate getting
smaller comments on their work: “And [the feedback] is continued like, more the
encouraging things. And that means more than I think he thinks […] It means like the
small things do more, just being like good job […] It just makes you a bit more motivated”
(Interviewee K). This exert brings attention to the importance of positive reinforcement,
as the participant highlights that getting snippets of positive feedback regularly is a
motivating factor and this was echoed by other interviewees as well (E, F).

Another angle that shows the importance of feedback is the fact that many interviewees
(A, B, C, L) mentioned that they also ask their manager or teammates for it. Actively
seeking it means that it is more than just something that the employees accept because it
is given to them. They are aware of the benefits of it so they ask for it. Some expressed

43
gratitude when the employer provides tools for requesting feedback and stated that they
use it regularly: “It's very much promoted in the company to ask for feedback regularly.
And then you also get very […] good feedback” (Interviewee L).

However, being forced to ask for it as the only means of receiving feedback was seen as
something negative by some interviewees. In three of these cases (B, C, E), they
expressed dislike about there not being good feedback culture. Interview B expressed this
concern as following: “Best way is really just to ask for it because we don't have feedback
culture in our team and I've expressed it”, as they have brought this up to their manager
and team, further emphasizing the importance of having habitual feedback.

Given that it is a topic of interest both in the working environment and in academia, we
were surprised to see how many (six) of our interviewees were dissatisfied with the
amount or the frequency of the feedback they were receiving, for example: “I wish that I
had more feedback, more regular ones” (Interviewee D). In the most extreme case we
encountered, Interviewee I realized during the interview the complete absence of
feedback at their current position: “I don't really get any feedback, it’s actually a bit
shocking”. Working in a corporate setting and not getting any feedback is unacceptable
for the modern employee. Having continuous feedback not only helps with productivity
but also with engagement and empowerment.

4.4.2 Developmental purposes

Getting feedback and constructive criticism over one’s work can be advantageous for
learning and for developing. Our interviewees collectively agreed that even though
positive feedback is always nice to hear, perhaps some negative or improvements for next
time holds more actual value as exemplified by Interviewee B: “The thing with positive
feedback, it's like nice, but doesn't really improve the same way as something negative”.
Having a balance of both positive and constructive feedback is important for the
participants as it adds to the feeling of being cared for. Getting solely small positive
feedback such as “good job” does not add any explicit value and makes one wonder if the
employee is taken seriously, or if the feedback is given solely because they feel like they

44
have to. “For example like, oh, you did a great job and also it can be like, yeah, that was
good before, but for the next time, maybe do this also? Or maybe you can try a different
way” (Interviewee H).

As discussed in 4.2, growth opportunities are very important for the participants of this
study and they recognize that feedback is an integral part of that. Nine of our interviewees
mentioned that they appreciate feedback for this reason which makes the connection
between their desire for being able to develop themselves and the value they see in
receiving feedback apparent. Interviewee I’s words describe this perfectly: “Very
important I would say, because that shows if you're going in the right direction or if you're
doing things wrong […] that's important for my learning journey”. The way the
interviewees reflect on the role feedback plays in their development, makes it clear that
they do not just want to sit back and wait for someone else to take care of it but they take
responsibility for it instead. As Interviewee A so eloquently put: “So it's up to you to own
your development and feedback is an important part of that”. This shows the importance
of the manager as even though one can own their own development, they still require the
support of the leader through feedback.

4.5 Work-life balance

In this modern society, it is important to have enough time and energy for things outside
of work. Millennials have realized that work is not their whole life and there should be
space for doing what matters to them and living their lives accordingly. Therefore, they
are demanding the possibility for a healthy work-life balance from employers. The
concept is not described unanimously so we let the interviewees define it for themselves
as it depends on what they prioritize. This theme consists of three codes namely, Healthy
balance; Mentally clocking out and Pressure and stress.

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4.5.1 Healthy balance

This is one of our 26 codes that contains the most exerts which clearly shows the
importance of it. Each person interviewed had an opinion on the matter, be it positive
experiences or saying that it was less than ideal in their case. Whatever the definition was
for each person, they felt strongly about maintaining a good balance between their work-
life and personal life. One example was Interviewee F’s ideas of just generally feeling
good about one’s job while not losing touch with their personal life: “Like you just want
to be able to work a job that you like and then at the end of the day, be like, I still have
my hobbies, I still have my free time, my friends”.

A common concept is that they are not letting their work life be separate from their
personal life as Interviewee B said: “I'm not living 2 lives, I’m living one life so if I can
have balance in that […] with all what it entails then that's a good balance”. Not making
a distinction between both seems to be a healthy way to balance them out and to work
better, the same idea was expressed by Interviewee A: “Good work life balance is also
important because I work to live, I don't live to work”. Clearly emphasizing that work is
not necessarily the most important thing about one’s life and that notion of doing
everything for work has clearly left this generation and is not something that the
millennials focus on. According to Interviewee L: “You should feel already good at work
and it should not be seen as the counterpart of your private life”. We believe this
encapsulates the modern workforce as it sheds light on the role that a job can play in their
life.

As we have shown in the previous themes, the other side of the matter was also discussed
in some cases. When employees are not happy with this aspect of their work, they tend to
be more likely to look for other job opportunities, like Interviewee J did: “They had the
requirement of you being caught up on emails and stuff that had been sent over the
weekend and I didn't want to work that way”. However, this was not that prominent as
only two interviewees (G, J) were able to recall negative experiences. This is an indication
that work-life balance is being respected by most employers. It is dependent on the
manager as well since ultimately, they are the ones who could disregard one’s need to

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have a healthy work-life balance. However, none of our interviewees said anything
negative about their current manager disrespecting this highly valued balance.

4.5.2 Mentally clocking out

A reoccurring theme when talking about work-life balance is the ability to not have to
bring work back home. Being able to mentally clock out when the day is over and not
think about work is a necessity expressed in ten of our interviews. For instance,
Interviewee H talked about being able to do this with great satisfaction: “It's much easier
to just clock out and go home and not think about work”. This way of leaving work behind
mentally seems to have healthy benefits since it means that one can fully focus on things
that are important to them and not sacrifice their personal life.

Most of the participants’ answers made it clear that having work-life balance is almost a
given. Prior to the interviews, they had not thought of it as something that could be lacking
which makes it feel like it is a priority without it having to be at the forefront of their
minds. We believe this is a good indicator of companies moving in the right direction to
satisfy the current workforce.

4.5.3 Pressure and stress

We believe that feeling stressed is a part of the discussion on work-life balance because
when one feels too much stress at work, they cannot separate that feeling in their personal
life. They carry these feelings with them outside of work which can have a negative spill
over in their private life. During our interviews, we came up with the distinction between
internal and external stress. Internal is self-put pressure and external is pressure put by
the employer or manager. Surprisingly, internal stress was much more prevalent and
stress coming from the leader was not very highlighted as only three interviewees
mentioned this as something they had encountered and were unhappy with. For example,
Interviewee C expressed an alarming situation in which management kept generating
unwarranted stress by adding new demands without considering whether they were
feasible: “So even though we tried to plan ahead and make sure you don't end up in this

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stress situation, management kind of forces you into this stress situation by making so
many changes”.

Internal stress on the other hand, was more prominent in our interviews. The frequency
of it demonstrates the human aspect of people wanting to perform at a higher level. As
Interviewee D said: “No [pressure], not from the outside, but it comes from me”, this
clearly indicates that the only pressure they experience was from within. Our interviewees
expressed inner aspirations and their desire to live up to them, like Interviewee J: “And
to sort of rise up to my own ambitions and my prospects of how I want to be as a
colleague”. Having the stress come from within makes it natural and therefore more
bearable when it is to a certain extent.

The participants also reflected on having a healthy level of stress that is actually beneficial
for them: “I think I find stress uhm, motivating and fun in some level, but not when it's
too much” (Interviewee H). Other interviewees (J, L) agreed with this point putting
emphasis on the positive outcomes of internal pressure. We believe that it is a healthy
way of looking at this aspect of life and instead of trying to reject it, one should embrace
it and use it to their advantage as it can push one to achieve realistic goals. Having a
healthy level of stress is also in line with letting things go sometimes. One of our
participants talked about accepting the fact that not everything can always work out
exactly the way it was intended: “I very much learned in this project that sometimes, 80%
is good enough and it has to be OK” (Interviewee J). Not being a perfectionist is
necessary since otherwise, the stress that comes with only accepting impeccable results
becomes unhealthy.

4.6 Being content with work

This theme was created around aspects of the work life that the interviewees talked about
as things that makes them want to go to work. These topics ranged from connection to
coworkers to being confident about one’s abilities to feeling like one can make an impact
through their job while being appreciated. Accordingly, the codes within this theme are
Social aspect; Self-efficacy; Meaningful job and Feeling valued.

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4.6.1 Social aspect

Millennials do not wish to solely go to work and be completely and strictly professional
for eight hours a day and this is true for our interviewees as well. They want to feel like
they do not have to pretend that they are a different person just because they are at work.
This brings about the need for some personal connection to their coworkers which almost
all of the participants emphasized. For most of them, having colleagues they get along
with was one of the first things they brought up when asked about what is most important
to them at the workplace. For instance: “I definitely want to enjoy the people I'm working
with. I do not think I would enjoy working anywhere that I didn't like the people”
(Interviewee F). If some other aspects of the job are not up to par, having good colleagues
was highlighted to be a deterrent of dissatisfaction.

Having people at work that one can talk to can be good for one’s mental health since they
are going through the same experience and talking about it with someone who
understands allows for a deeper connection. “Yeah, I have found some really good friends
there that I also spend time outside of work [with]. I also feel like we share a lot of the
same frustrations” (Interviewee I). This is part of the basic human need for belonging to
a group and feeling like one is with people who understand them. The need for socializing
cannot always just be bound to one’s personal life, especially given that most people
spend more time with their colleagues than with their friends. Therefore, it seems natural
to form bonds, like Interviewee J mentioned “Yeah, I have a few which I […] hang out
with privately as well […] everyone sort of has at least one who you have more as your
work bestie”.

4.6.2 Self-efficacy

Confidence regarding one’s own capabilities is important for the millennial workforce
which is in line with their preference for being challenged only to a certain extent as
discussed in 4.3.1. This is because if they were faced with such challenges that they deem
impossible to overcome, that would negatively impact their self-esteem and therefore,
lower the level of motivation. Even though we did not have any specific questions about

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self-efficacy during our interviews, five of the participants (A, E, I, K, L) mentioned the
importance of getting positive reinforcement as a necessity for them because of its
positive influence on their confidence. For example: “I feel a bit more confident at my
work and I feel like people appreciate what I do and it's important going forward that I
feel a bit more inspired to improve and do better” (Interviewee E).

Interestingly, one interviewee talked about confidence without mentioning any need for
external support: “Usually just the beginning of a job, I'll have this internal stress, but
once it's smooth sailing, I'm pretty confident in my position” (Interviewee F). They were
more focused on the importance of learning enough so that the self-doubt disappears
giving way to a more confident manner of working. However, every other interviewee
who mentioned confidence made the connection between feeling self-assured and
external validation. For example, Interviewee A said: “So getting the positive
reinforcement and also, like, help of course along the way so I can get better, that helps
me with, like, my confidence”. We recognize the importance of the leader in the support
of employees’ self-efficacy and acknowledge that they can encourage their employees.

4.6.3 Meaningful job

Being able to be proud of one´s work and feel like one is actually making some difference
with their job is something that our interviewees seemed to agree on being gratifying. Just
as self-efficacy, this is a code that came directly from our data as we did not ask any
questions regarding this, nevertheless six of our interviewees mentioned it as something
important. This was one of the first things Interviewee I mentioned as part of an ideal
workplace: “To feel like you're making an impact or you're actually, yeah, achieving
something”. Other participants agreed that working for the greater good gives them
deeper satisfaction.

“So it's more satisfying for me to work for something that I feel like maybe it's benefiting
people at the end of the day, it doesn't have to be a direct benefit like, oh, we're literally
saving people's lives or something. But it could just be something like this saves people

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time and it's like an actual good product or this helps people in this way”. (Interviewee
F)

The quote above perfectly encapsulates the sense of doing something that adds actual
value but as they stated, it does not have to be a direct value as saving people’s lives for
example. Working with something that has some benefits for people not only enhances
one’s connection with the workplace but also adds to the positive connotation with the
work. Having meaningless jobs and not feeling like one is contributing is not what the
workforce is interested in. Like interviewee M states: “I really like that I feel that I have
kind of a meaning”, they are just content with doing something that matters at work. Job
satisfaction seems to increase drastically when the employee feels like their work has a
meaningful outcome.

4.6.4 Feeling valued

Throughout this study, we have shown that bringing humanity into the workplace is
important for Gen Y in general. The participants want to feel like they matter as people
and what they do is of value to the company they work for or to society. All this brings
the need for feeling valued at their job and having a good manager plays a fundamental
role in that. Seven of the interviewees discussed the significance of feeling appreciated.
There are many ways a leader can evoke this feeling in an employee; for example
Interviewee K, when talking about their manager, reflected on feeling like their opinion
matters: “[…] because it makes me feel valued like […] what I do it is not for nothing”.
This thought was similarly articulated by Interviewee L: “If I think I have something to
say, then I say it and then they listen to you and they challenge you and also take your
opinion into the decision-making process”.

Therefore, feeling valued means that one feels like they can make their voice heard and
that they can have an impact in their job. This was indicated by Interviewee M’s words:
“When it affects me, I have the feeling that I can say [it] and my voice is heard”. The
ability to have an impact was critically observed by Interviewee E as something that is
potentially crippled by organizational constraints but deemed appreciated: “In smaller

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companies, I feel like you have much more influence as an employee to change things.
And I tend to like that”.
One of our interviewees recalled their negative experience of not being valued by their
manager. This had such a tremendous effect on them, that they mentioned this as one of
the main reasons they eventually decided to change jobs, further emphasizing the weight
of making millennial employees feel valued:

“I don't think they really saw my value and my co-worker’s value […] My role definitely
had changed, but the title didn't and the pay didn’t so it was frustrating that it wasn't,
like, acknowledged in any way.” (Interviewee F)

4.7 Manager

All the themes before this have addressed what millennials want from their workplace,
which is related to how their manager treats them. In this theme we explore what
characteristics are seen as ideal for a manager and what kind of relationship the employees
want to have with them. Below we analyze five codes namely, Coaching, Knowledgeable,
Relationship, Supportive and caring and Importance.

4.7.1 Coaching

An important characteristic emphasized by the interviewees is coaching. This has some

connections to the manager giving the employees freedom to carry out tasks while also
being able to help when necessary as discussed in 4.1. The participants of this study want
to feel like they have a leader who guides them instead of just giving orders. Interviewee
B said: “I've also had the luxury of having a mentor who can go like…ask leading
questions. So I kind of like come to [a] conclusion of my own” and this was mirrored by
Interviewee I who also used the term mentor: “I had some really good managers that
really trained me and kind of mentored me even”. This points towards a desire for some
independence with the aim to learn and develop oneself. The interviewees who expressed
this need often used words such as guidance and offering help. This calls for a leader who

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takes a step back and lets the employees have the ability to figure things out on their own,
while also being available for counseling when needed.

One of the participants of the study was able to recall negative experiences as well: “Quite
unmotivating if I have no real guidance from someone [on] how to do my job better”
(Interviewee I). They expressed with great dissatisfaction that a previous manager was
lacking in this aspect. This made the employee feel like their development was hindered
by the leader not being able to provide the coaching mindset that was required by the
interviewee: “I feel like he was often so busy doing his own work that he didn't really
have a lot of time to listen to what I'm doing and help me out or like train me or develop
me”. Interviewee M also emphasized that this helped them work better together with their
manager: “I really think that he [has] more this kind of coaching mindset and this is
something that I like and we can work in this way together”, so acting as a coach/mentor
is definitely beneficial.

4.7.2 Knowledgeable

To be able to coach employees, a manager is expected to have knowledge in the area. The
interviewees reflected on the fact that when this is not the case, they have a harder time
working with a supervisor, for example: “If you're in a leadership position where you are
dictating what me and my colleagues do, but you do not understand at all what we do, I
don't feel like you should be a leader over us” (Interviewee F). The palpable frustration
evident in the quote stems from the manager not being knowledgeable in the field which
makes the employee feel like the leader does not have the authority to dictate what they
do and ultimately leads to a loss of respect. This thought was followed up by Interviewee
F stating that “[Someone who doesn't] really care for leadership, I think that's a good
quality because someone who leads and definitely leads by example is someone you want
to follow”. Seeing this, it is clear that the interviewee holds knowledge and experience in
higher regards than any other quality that a leader can possess.

Furthermore, when the manager has the necessary knowledge, employees might feel more
connected to them. We analyzed trust previously from the employee’s point of view (see

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4.1.5) but it is also important that they feel like they can trust the leader, and this can be
brought about by the feeling that there is a mutual understanding based on shared
knowledge: “He can understand where our frustration is coming from […] he has that
domain knowledge which makes him more trustworthy” (Interviewee B). We believe this
is something of great importance, since eight of our interviewees stated that they want the
manager to be an insider in the field, for example:

“She's also experienced and I trust her to know […] what modules and what strategies
to use.” (Interviewee H)

“I would prefer someone who has extensive experience to work as a senior supervisor,
so I know who I can talk to about things or just has good thoughts about subjects or
something.” (Interviewee E)

4.7.3 Relationship

All of our interviewees highlighted the importance of having a relationship with their
manager that is beyond the traditional “servant-leader” relationship. They emphasized
good communication as an essential part of the ideal relationship they would want to have
with their boss. They appreciate honesty and openness as it further strengthens mutual
trust like in the case of Interviewee L when talking about what they value about their
current leader: “Honesty and authenticity […] he's very open with his mistakes or with
his weaknesses”. This adds a layer of vulnerability to a person which makes them feel
more approachable and relatable. Other interviewees mirrored this line of thought,
especially emphasizing the importance of open and honest communication: “I find it to
be very important to be able to have a very good discussion with my boss. [The
relationship is] very open and we have very direct communication which I enjoy”
(Interviewee J). Some participants also mentioned the need to build a personal
connection, like Interviewee I: “I think it is to show some kind of interest in your
employees and also on a personal level, I mean just to, like, you know what that person
[…] is like”.

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Having adequate information from the manager was said to be important by the
interviewees. They mostly talked about it as something positive since they seem to be
satisfied with the level of it and therefore, did not raise any complaints. For example: “We
have a meeting every day so we are always updated” (Interviewee K). Being aware of
what is going on in the company is of high importance and the employees understandably
expect this information from their leader, who serves as the main point of connection
between the employees and the rest of the organization. On the other hand, the lack of it
can be a reason for pressure as Interviewee B reflected: “Good communication [is
important], I think, because if you don't have communication, I feel like a lot of things
are going to be very stressy”.

Another thing employees value from their leader is when they make them feel safe. This
was expressed by some interviewees by saying that they feel like they can speak up when
they disagree with their manager: “That it's OK for me to bring up a different opinion,
even if we don't necessarily do anything with it that I feel safe to voice it, like, there won't
be any retaliation” (Interviewee A). Not having to fear repercussions and being able to
express what they genuinely think was greatly appreciated and agreed upon by seven
other participants as well. Interviewees valued having their voices heard as it makes
people feel like they matter and that they can also be open without being judged: “I feel
like I definitely have the opportunity to voice things I feel like I want to […] I think he
would be very open to it and has been very open to it” (Interviewee E).

4.7.4 Supportive and caring

Since having elements of humanity in the workplace is evidently important to our

interviewees, it is only natural that they want the manager to be someone they can turn to
with their problems, should they have any. “I really have the feeling that if I have any
problem then I can call [him] almost any time” (Interviewee M). Almost all of the people
interviewed (ten) talked about how necessary it is to have a manager who can take on a
supportive, caring role so the personality of a leader is clearly very important. As
Interviewee I said: “I would like to have a leader that makes sure I develop my skills, that

55
I grow in my role and at the same time, that I'm not overworked or overwhelmed […] it's
like a bit of a caring role”.

The interviewees seemed to appreciate the manager being proactive in this caring role as
well. For instance, Interviewee L mentioned: “If you get some new tasks, for example,
they always ask, like, do you think you have enough time to take that on and they check
in with you all the time”. The leader asking about how the employees feel is immensely
appreciated since it makes them feel like they are not just another resource but that they
are treated as human beings instead. This was also emphasized by Interviewee E: “He
seems very caring and makes sure I'm having a good time and that I feel like I fit in”.
Similarly, Interviewee J recognized that their manager paid attention to what the
employees want and are happy with (regarding hybrid working conditions) and acted
accordingly: “Senior Project manager actually said that […] we're going to continue
with this because we've noticed that people are more happy with it”. This was regarded
by the employee as consideration for the well-being of people and was greatly valued.

One interviewee also recalled a negative experience when their manager was lacking in
the caring role: “For my boss to check in on me and see like, oh, are you finding
everything well, how's it going? Yeah, I felt that part was a bit lacking” (Interviewee E).
The shortage of this much desired characteristic was noticed by the employee and put
further emphasis on the required proactivity on the manager’s part. Once again, we
observed that the interviewees with leaders that fulfill their need for a supportive and
caring personality spoke fondly of them and seemed dissatisfied when they did not meet
this requirement.

4.7.5 Importance

The final code of this theme is importance of managers, even though it is a bit different
from the other codes in this theme, it was something that we felt to be essential to our
study. In our interview guide (Appendix 2), we explicitly asked the participants how much
of their satisfaction or dissatisfaction was due to the manager. This was done so that the
interviewees could reflect on the matter a bit and then evaluate how important a manager

56
actually is. This is crucial for our study as we are showing that almost everything they
value at work can be traced back to the manager. Every single interviewee explicitly
mentioned that the manager plays a substantial role at work, for example: “So much of it
is the managers, they really can make or break the jobs” (Interviewee F). This was the
underlying message that all the interviewees agreed on and the fact that the manager plays
a far more important role than they initially thought.

Another key aspect that we discovered from our data is how detrimental a bad manager
can be and how many times that is the pushing point for employees to quit. A total of four
(A, F, G, I) interviewees reported that this was their reason for quitting or that this is
pushing them to be unsatisfied and looking for other jobs. As Interviewee A recalled: “I
think what pushed me over the edge was during this time when I had a kind of psychotic
manager”. Not feeling safe or trusted at work and having a manager that is over-bearing
was what pushed Interviewee A to finally quit. Interviewee F had a similar experience
with their old job and recounted that the biggest reason to quit was because of the manager
when they said: “This new CTO that took over in the last year is pretty much […] why me
and my colleague quit”. Their new manager was not only the reason they quit but also
had a rippling effect on the team and had devastating consequences for the employer.
Many times, when things are going well, one does not put so much importance on why
however, when they are not, it is very evident as to why, which is the sentiment
Interviewee D was talking about: “A bad manager is terrible but a good one maybe
doesn't make much difference”.

It is clear that a bad manager plays a huge role in the dissatisfaction of an employee as
interviewee G pointed out: “I would definitely say right now 100% of this dissatisfaction
is exclusively due to the manager”. This is just proving the point that the manager is
extremely important, as that thought resonated with all participants, Interviewee A even
mentioned: “Your manager is more important to your health than […] a health care
practitioner”. Even though a manager is not personally responsible for one’s health, they
become important as one spends a third of their day at work. Having a good manager can
be important for not only keeping employees happy but also as a deterrent from
employees leaving. When talking about their old job, Interviewee E reminisced fondly
about their manager and still talks with them to this day and even has some regrets leaving

57
the job just because of them. This further proves our point that even though a manager is
not everything, it plays a substantial role in both the positives and especially the negatives
when it comes to job satisfaction. Therefore, finding good managers should be a priority
for employers as they would want an ex-employee to speak about their manager in the
same way Interviewee E does below:

“She was very open minded. She coached me a lot. We could talk about a lot of things.
We still have contact. I see her a bit as my mentor today. Like, I regret leaving [my old
job], but at the same time I have flourished as a person and I guess at one point you would
[...] leave the nest and try to move on to something else.” (Interviewee E)

4.8 Corporate environment

A theme that quickly became relevant when conducting the interviews is that a good
corporate environment is needed for employee satisfaction. A manager needs to have the
support of management and there need to be some elements in place for true success. We
realized that the interviewees were well aware of a manager not being omnipotent and
there needs to be the right corporate setting. Therefore in this theme, we have codes that
are out of the manager’s reach but important to the millennials, nonetheless. The codes
are Communication, Culture and Money.

4.8.1 Communication

Being informed about what not only one’s own group is doing but also that of other
departments helps build unity within the company and motivates employees to be more
engaged. A few of the interviewees mentioned the importance of there being good
information flow between departments. Interviewee I expressed their frustration clearly
when talking about the lack of information flow: “It's also that other departments have
other priorities and those priorities are sometimes not really clearly communicated to my
department […] Definitely a lot there can be improved when it comes to communication
and information flow”. They are showing that the lack of communication between
departments worsens the whole community sense and the dynamics between teams.

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Even though there were concerns about lack of communication, Interviewee L’s company
had a remarkably interesting solution to this issue: “So then you have these all-company
or department-wide web casts […] which is very good because then the participants can
ask all the questions that they actually have and it's not just a one-way communication”.
They really appreciated this innovative idea where there was not only a one-way
communication channel but a multi-way where the questions from the employees were
highly appreciated. They also emphasized that this was not just something that was
available to no avail but that it was indeed used and that they themselves participated
actively in them. However, there were also some negative comments from Interviewee L
where they stated “Sometimes information just gets lost. But I think that yeah, I haven't
heard about a company where that is not the case at all”.

4.8.2 Culture

Nearly all of our interviewees (nine) talked about aspects of their jobs that we were able
to categorize as corporate culture, making it a prominent and recurring theme in our data.
They emphasized the significance of having a good environment around them and they
like seeing what the underlying values are which is apparent in their day-to-day life at the
company. Interviewee L talked with excitement about feeling confident with their choice
of employer as coworkers seem to be happy after spending decades there: “It's very nice
to see […] that actually a lot of people stay there for 10, 20, 30 years, even more than 30
years and they still tell you when you meet them, you've made a good choice”. Seeing the
satisfaction around them and being able to discuss it makes the employee secure in their
employment and plausibly less likely to look for other opportunities.

We also encountered negative examples during our research where the corporate culture
is a reason for dissatisfaction. When asked about their ideas about an ideal workplace,
Interviewee E said: “I believe that a workplace is best when it's…there's a lot of diversity,
a lot of different backgrounds, which I would actually say it's not the case where I am
right now, which makes me a bit uncertain about my future there”. The interviewee
admitting that the mismatch between their values and the environment is of such concern

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to them clearly indicates its vital role. Millennial employees therefore value working in
an environment where they feel that the culture is in line with what is important to them.

4.8.3 Money

Millennials have been said to care less about money if other factors are perceived more
favorable. This was found to be true with our interviewees as well, as they mentioned it
being of importance but not the only thing that matters. They understand that it does play
a role and if the salary is unfavorable, it is demotivating but just going for a job with
higher pay does not necessarily add value to them. Employees will no longer just gladly
accept payment to complete tasks beyond their scope or work crazy hours as Interviewee
G put it: “You also realize that actually all that stress and working hard and not being
able to sleep and all the health sacrifices and personal sacrifices and all the money in the
bank, it's not worth it”. Mental health is an aspect that is of great importance for this
generation and being solely driven by money is completely against that.

Interestingly, when asked about what would entice them to change jobs, most mentioned
money in some facet but then at the same time, they mentioned that it was not the number
one factor, such as Interviewee F did: “I don't think I would want to take […] a super,
super well-paying job, if I absolutely hated it.”. However, if one feels that they are being
underpaid or that their compensation has not increased in a while, then it becomes of
concern and they feel like quitting. This is because being underpaid lowers the motivation
level of the employee and makes them feel like they are worth less as Interviewee F
pronounced: “So I left my job at [their previous employer] after three years mainly
because my salary had really plateaued there”. Not feeling valued is an aspect that adds
great dissatisfaction as mentioned in 4.6.4.

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 Discussion
_____________________________________________________________________________________
In this chapter, we will further discuss our analysis in relation to millennial needs and
empowering leadership with the purpose of answering our research question.
______________________________________________________________________

5.1 Discussion of study

After conducting the literature review and analyzing our empirical data, we now move on
to synthesize the literature and our own findings. There are elements in academia that we
further proved to be true with our research but we also found some discrepancies in which
we will add to theory. Therefore, we will discuss the findings that are either in line with
existing theory or the ways in which our findings differ from previous literature on both
what millennials need in the workplace and also how empowering leadership can respond
to these needs.

One of the defining elements of empowering leadership is delegation (Amundsen &

Martinsen, 2014). This is in line with what academia says is important for millennials as
they require a higher level of freedom in the workplace (Cennamo & Gardner, 2008; Kong
et al., 2016) and it is clear from our findings that autonomy is held in high regards by the
millennial employees we interviewed. The theory of empowering leadership puts deeper
emphasis on involving employees in decision making (Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014;
Arnold et al., 2000; Konczak et al., 2000). However, our data indicates that it is not of
major concern to Gen Y as only two interviewees mentioned it. What we discovered is
that they are not as concerned with being able to make decisions autonomously but more
interested in having the authority to carry out tasks the way they see fit. This is in direct
contrast with micro-management which is something they expressed a great disdain for.
Therefore, in this aspect we believe that empowering leadership is a good way to lead the
millennial employees however, it should be more focused on task-related autonomy
instead of influence in decision making, as we did not find a lot of evidence for the need
for the latter.

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From our data, freedom emerged in the form of flexible workdays as well. When
employees are given autonomy and therefore have some control over how and when they
do their work, the feeling of not being chained to their job increases. This adds to having
a healthy work-life balance which is something that academia recognizes as important to
millennials (Bolino et al., 2021; Twenge & Campbell, 2012) and equally supported by
our findings. With these results, we believe we further strengthen the notion that
empowering leadership is a fitting style when managing millennial employees as
autonomy is part of it and can lead to the much-desired work-life balance.

As described in 4.6, Gen Y employees want to feel like they can be themselves at work
and we believe a parallel can be drawn between this and the desire for a healthy work-life
balance. In the literature about millennials, the relationship with one’s manager is deemed
important (Han & Jekel, 2011) however, no real emphasis is placed on connection to
one’s coworkers. Our findings suggest that Gen Y employees regard their relationship
with the people they spend a significant portion of their day with to be immensely
important. We believe this adds to work-life balance based on the participants of the study
stating that they want to be able to enjoy working with their colleagues and that the
balance they seek includes having a job which they can take pleasure in. Given that almost
all the interviewees expressed the importance of having connections at work, we believe
it should be added to literature as a basic millennial need.

Likewise with the millennial literature, connection with one’s manager is represented in
empowering leadership. Arnold et al. (2000) identify showing concern as a leadership
practice, which is perfectly in line with our findings and studies on millennials showing
that they want the manager to be supportive. As discussed in the analysis (4.7.4), the
interviewees put emphasis on the leader taking on a caring role further strengthening the
applicability of empowering leadership.

Literature on empowering leadership also includes information sharing as a key practice

(Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014; Arnold et al., 2000; Konczak et al., 2000). When
conducting the literature review, we did not find any indication that the need for more
information is a key characteristic of the millennials. However, it clearly emerges from
our data that a good information flow with the manager is desired and expressed as

62
something whose absence was of concern. This leads us to believe that adding a level of
transparency this way is a point that creates a link between what millennial employees
want and what empowering leadership can provide.

From our research, it also became apparent that in most cases, Gen Y employees feel like
more information could be shared with them because they wish to know more about
where decisions come from and what the reasons behind them are. This is in contrast with
what we found in some literature about millennials as according to Twenge et al. (2012)
and Solnet et al. (2012), this generation has lost affiliation to work and is less focused on
what is going on in the company. This negative connotation has been disproven in our
study as most of the participants stated that they would like to be more participative in
the whole corporate environment.

As discussed in the literature review, the support of employees’ motivation is prominent

in empowering leadership (Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014). In 2.2.2 we stated that we
believe this to be a broad category of leadership practices, as opposed to it being regarded
as a distinct behavior and this was supported by our findings. The interviewees talked
about the manager’s tremendous role in their motivation however, they emphasized
different ways in which they can influence it. In 2.2.2 we described the practices that are
commonly associated with and recognized by Amundsen and Martinsen (2014) as
behaviors that can increase employee motivation. Taking initiatives was not mentioned
by the participants of this study as something that they would require a leader to explicitly
encourage. Goal orientation however, was a topic of discussion in our interviews and
literature alike as a means of motivating employees (Amundsen & Martinsen, 2014;
Arnold et al., 2000; Konczak et al., 2000; Ryan, 2019). In Arnold et al.’s (2000) study,
they emphasize the importance of setting goals for oneself, but we did not find evidence
that supports the millennials’ need for this. Nonetheless, having attainable goals that they
can work towards plays a significant role in the level of motivation.

This ties into the support of self-efficacy which is another practice identified in Amundsen
and Martinsen’s (2014) work on empowering leadership and our findings suggest that it
is a crucial aspect for Gen Y employees as well. We were able to make a connection
between this and millennials’ need for challenging work as identified in academia

63
(Altizer, 2010; Valenti, 2019). When talking about intellectual stimulation, the topic of
challenging work was of importance and many of the interviewees highlighted their
preference for controlled challenges which is also in line with literature (Kultalahti &
Viitala, 2015). This indicates that they want to feel confident about being able to
accomplish goals and not have unreachable objectives. Hence, empowerment can be
increased by the support of self-efficacy (Amundsen & Martinsen’s 2014; Kong et al.,
2016). Inspiring behavior was explicitly mentioned only by two interviewees as
something they want from a leader, which we do not consider significant enough to
support the importance of it for empowering leadership in the case of millennials. Being
able to identify what motivates each employee is therefore a necessary skill an
empowering leader ought to have.

Seeing how prevalent challenging work is to employees based on literature (Altizer, 2010;
Valenti, 2019) and our own findings as well, we recognize the importance of it. Based on
the discussion above, being able to tackle challenges makes the employee feel
accomplished, which leads us to believe that it should be added to empowering leadership.
This is not only on behalf of the millennial generation, but also in general because being
intellectually stimulated and matching expectations makes people feel empowered.

Based on our research, the most important aspect of Gen Y employee satisfaction is
development, whose significance is also mentioned in literature (Holt, 2018). The value
of other elements differs from participant to participant but our findings clearly indicate
agreement on growth and development being the number one factor for both the feeling
of fulfillment and wanting to leave the current employment. In empowering leadership
theory, modeling or leading by example and providing guidance or coaching are
mentioned as behaviors supporting employee development (Amundsen & Martinsen,
2014; Arnold et al., 2000; Konczak et al., 2000). The interviewees emphasized that having
a knowledgeable leader is beneficial to their development and to maintain a healthy
leader-follower dynamic by generating respect. Our results show that millennials are most
content with work when they have development opportunities and that they need their
leader to support their growth which is then in accordance with empowering leadership
theory.

64
Coaching and guidance are management practices that most interviewees explicitly
mentioned to be of importance to them. However, something else emerged from our
findings as a means to support development namely, feedback. This is an acknowledged
need of millennials in academia (Altizer, 2010; Holt, 2018) and based on our research,
we suggest including it as part of development support and therefore, a core practice of
empowering leadership. Employees’ development can only be achieved if they are made
aware of what they did right and what are the things that they can improve on, so we
believe that feedback plays a significant role in empowerment.

5.2 Summary of discussion

Through the extensive analysis and discussion, we have understood that the manager
plays a crucial role and we helped our millennial interviewees realize this as well.
However, it is also apparent that they are not omnipotent as the corporate environment is
also significant since a lot of things are out of a manager’s control. Therefore, ideally the
organization should provide leaders with the necessary tools so that they can empower
the Gen Y workforce. We believe that we managed to answer our research question, How
does empowering leadership improve job satisfaction of millennials?, by successfully
matching empowering leadership practices to millennial needs and contributing to theory
by discovering some aspects that should be added to it. This was done based on millennial
needs while also weighing which of these increase the feeling of empowerment, therefore
combining the two fields of research. A summary of our discussion can be seen in Figure
2 below:

65
Figure 2: Summary of discussion on empowering leadership and millennial needs

66
 Conclusions

6.1 Theoretical implications

With our study, we were able to assess the utility of empowering leadership in the case
of the millennial workforce. We came to the conclusion that it is a fitting leadership style
for this generation however, we discovered some shortcomings that we believe we can
address. As discussed above, we were able to identify two distinct practices that should
be added to the empowering leadership literature. Based on our findings, we believe that
providing challenging work is something that can lead to more empowerment. Our
interviewees talked about intellectual stimulation as something that motivates them and
keeps them satisfied especially when they are able to fulfill the challenges they face.
Therefore, challenging employees to a healthy extent should be added to the theory of
empowering leadership.

We would like to further contribute to theory by introducing the concept of feedback. Our
results suggest that getting not only positive reinforcement but also constructive criticism
is deemed to be a fundamental part of growth and is desired by employees. As the support
of development is already part of literature, we believe that feedback enriches this part of
theory. The participants of the study put emphasis on how much it helps them to be able
to develop. Furthermore, being able to give feedback increases empowerment too as
employees can feel like they are appreciated and trusted to have constructive opinion on
others’ work. This leads us to believe that giving feedback and encouraging the
employees to do the same has the potential to enrich the empowering leadership literature.

6.2 Practical implications

In addition to theoretical implications, we believe that we were able to identify further

important characteristics of the millennials that could prove useful for managers and
companies alike. Through our research, we discovered that the Gen Y workforce is keen
on being able to develop. Since almost all the participants emphasized it as their main
aspect at an ideal workplace, we think it is safe to say that it is of great importance for
this generation. We also discovered that Gen Y employees want adequate information

67
flow from their leader which has not been emphasized in generational literature.
Connection to one’s manager has been associated with the millennial workforce however,
their need to have good relationships with their coworkers has not gained too much
traction but based on our findings, it is clear that its importance could not be overstated.
Having these insights could prove to be useful to managers when they lead millennials.

We would like to address the popular belief discussed in our thesis that this generation is
disloyal. Our findings suggest that if their needs are met, they tend to show characteristics
of loyalty. Based on these results, we conclude that managers ought to be aware of
millennials’ needs and motivate them accordingly. This will lead to loyalty from Gen Y
employees as the participants in our study who were satisfied talked fondly about their
jobs and had no intention of leaving any time soon. We understand that managers might
have reservations towards millennials given their reputation of changing jobs frequently
however, we hope that our results help change this seemingly false preconception.

6.3 Limitations

We have been able to identify some limitations with our study that we will address here.

Limitation 1: We set out to investigate the whole millennial cohort which we described
as people born between 1981-1999 however, all of our interviewees were born in the late
1980s or 1990s. Having participants born earlier as well would have rendered a fairer
representation. This is due to the sampling method, which was convenience sampling
meaning we did not set a criterion for age.

Limitation 2: As we did convenience sampling, we did not have as many criteria to get
participants. If we had done purposive sampling, we could have decided on how much
experience they have and control for other variables. This would have been more ideal
but with the time constraint and difficulty to get participants, we chose a method that
would be more efficient.

Limitation 3: We understand that English is neither our mother tongue nor the
participants’ therefore, there can be some ideas that are missing or information that could

68
be communicated better in a native tongue. However, by keeping it the same language
throughout, we believe we mitigated the risk of inconsistencies and translation errors.

Limitation 4: We are currently living in a post Covid-19 world and things are very much
different than they were before. Many of our interviewees had just started working and
most of their work life is with lockdown or other form of constraints. This not only
strained the work life but also brought up new aspects that were not common practice
before, such as hybrid working. We attempted to get a clear picture of what they want
regardless of outside factors however, we cannot control that their answers would not
have changed if the pandemic was not a factor.

6.4 Future research

We were able to identify potential areas for future research that could expand the field of
generational differences and leadership theories. As we suggested feedback and
challenging work to be added to empowering leadership, we believe these two leadership
practices should be tested in future studies, quantitative and qualitative alike, to further
prove their relevance. Additionally, different leadership styles should also be studied in
connection with the millennial workforce to see what fits their needs the best.

Given our scope, we were not interested in comparing Gen Y to other generations in the
workplace with the current study however, we believe it would allow for interesting and
valuable research. A study on what different generations need at work has the potential
to bring valuable insights into how leaders should treat employees from different
generations. We also propose that research on distinct industries could prove to be
insightful as exploring the differences between working professionals from multiple
fields could add nuances to academia. Furthermore, we believe that in order to get the
whole picture, it is important to investigate the leaders’ perspective as well. Exploring
how managers see millennials at work and studying how that differs from what they
actually need could prove useful to both researchers and practitioners.

69
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 Appendices

Appendix 1

Invitation paragraph

What is the purpose of the study collecting personal data?

•
•

•
•
•

78
 dpo@ju.se

Thank you for reading this information sheet and for considering whether to take part in this research
study.

79
Appendix 2

1. What industry are you working in?

2. What is your position?
3. How long have you been in this position?
4. How did you choose your current job?
5. What are the most essential things for you at an ideal workplace?
a. Does your current employer fulfil these needs?
b. What would entice you to change jobs?
6. Do you think you have clear development prospects within the company?
7. Do you have opportunities to develop yourself/your skills?
8. Do you feel challenged in your current work?
9. How involved are you in decision making?
10. How often do you get feedback on your work? Do you feel like it’s constructive
and enough?
11. Do you feel like you have the freedom to complete your tasks? Do you think it’s
important?
12. Do you feel a lot of pressure/stress at work?
13. How is the work environment?
a. How is your relationship with your direct supervisor?
b. What are some characteristics of a good leader?
c. How is your relationship with the higher ups?
14. How is the information flow from your manager?
15. Do you feel any connection to your colleagues other than professional?
a. Is there a sense of community at work?
16. Do you feel like your values are aligned with the company’s?
17. What does work-life balance mean for you?
18. What were the reasons you left your old job?
19. How much of your satisfaction at work is thanks to your manager?

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 Appendix 3

GDPR Thesis Study Consent Form

Required by European Union General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679

I consent to JIBS processing my personal data in accordance with current data protection  
legislation and the data delivered.

I consent voluntarily to be a participant in this study and understand that I can refuse to  
answer questions and I can withdraw from the study at any time, without having to give a
reason.

My signature below indicates that I choose to take part in the thesis study and consent to
JIBS treating my personal data in accordance with current data protection legislation and
the data delivered.

+46724424597
+46707125846

81